Can’t seem to move forward
Really thought this’d have some momentum
Aware this slump will pass
Waiting while backsliding
Learning lessons again and again
Sorry. Was feeling a little down there for a bit, but my nephew came in and helped me with something completely unrelated to what I was down about and now I feel better.
Sometimes we really do need all the reviews for life lessons that we can get because we’re human. We’re not always going to remember what they are.
So around the New Year, my eldest nephew asked if we could hold weekly Dungeons and Dragons games as a family. He very rarely ever asks to do anything as a family even once every few months, let alone something that would be a weekly occurrence. My sister immediately agreed and so since then, each week my sister, her three teenagers and myself meet to play Dungeons and Dragons at our kitchen table. We have three players (my sister and her two sons) and two Dungeon Masters (my niece and myself).
Why have two DMs, you may ask?
Well, my niece isn’t fond of D&D when as a player, but didn’t want to be the normal DM. I love creating stories and adventures, but sometimes can’t talk for hours at a time or other difficulties pop up. So my niece is my assistant and we pretty much split the world we’re using. If it takes place in one of my countries, I’m main DM (barring physical difficulties). If it’s in one of my niece’s countries, she’s the main DM.
Regardless, we all still have to be at the table each week and take part in the game.
As a result, everyone’s gotten better at communicating throughout the week because we have to get along to a certain degree or the D&D session comes to a quick end no matter what.
So I’m thankful for my nephew’s idea of playing Dungeons and Dragons as a family, because we’re all learning how to communicate better and are closer as a family.
A moment of frustration
Gone in a moment of adoration
Only to later reappear
Nodding in passing, then disappear
Yet the feelings remain, turning over and over again
I love my eldest nephew, but he’s just so frustrating! It doesn’t mean I love him any less, but I’m reminded sometimes of that song from “Into the Woods” where the princes sing of their pain about how they can never catch the girl they love. It helps to remind me that my frustrations with my nephew aren’t the important part in our lives.
Being a grown up is hard, because I know better and yet it’s still hard to work through. Knowing it’s possible to be better doesn’t necessarily make it easier. But it is worth it in the end.
Now to convince my frustrated emotions of that…
(falls over hilariously) Gah! (is caught by lanky nephew who smirks)
So, I have this cold, but my body responds to illnesses weirdly. Instead of running any fevers, I go hypothermic and drop to dangerous levels for my body temp. Then my vertigo likes to kick in at random moments and I go from perfectly stable (or as stable, physically, as I can get) to literally falling off my bed even though I’m leaning up against the wall on the opposite side of the bed from the floor.
I was heading through the kitchen (in the area that has no walls handy or furniture to catch myself on) when my vertigo kicked in hard. My eldest nephew was, thankfully, two steps away and caught me.
Then proceeded to smirk while walking me to the sofa and making sure I wouldn’t fall off of it as well.
Which is also a thing that happens. A lot.
Make sure to check out the original One-Liner Wednesday.
Of course it tastes good; I made it!
That was my sister’s youngest boy, Cory. He likes to cook and is actually pretty good at it. He takes after her, but manages to learn from her past cooking mistakes in ways that actually help. Unlike me.
Check out the original One-Liner Wednesday.
I keep coming across random posts online (in different places and I never remember to save those sources) about how people don’t really smirk or chuckle in real life and so you shouldn’t use those terms in writing (whether in original work or fanfiction.) Today I came across a post on Tumblr (where I am not a member, but like to randomly cruise through now and then for fun posts and random rants about history that all check out when I want to check for authenticity) that said,
those posts criticizing common writing patterns in fanfiction are so ******* harmful and they ruined me
so like yknow what??? People tell you to avoid “smirk” and “chuckle” as descriptors because no one does those things (???) but then when I need to use those words I have a ten minute crisis about how I’m a ****** writer. So heres my unwarranted writing advice: If you want your characters to smirk and chuckle ******* let them and don’t let anyone tell you that no one smirks or chuckles because I do both on a daily basis whenever I tell a ****** pun, bye –rowdyravens
I sat there for a moment and remembered running into all of those posts from before that say not to use smirk or chuckle and was really confused. For the first time, I realized that people genuinely think that no one smirks or chuckles in real life. I had not realized this before and had thought that those previous posts were jokes (or I was really tired when I read them and didn’t really take in what they were saying.)
Because quite a few of my family members genuinely smirk all the time. My dad does it (though he won’t admit to it) and he chuckles a lot. My eldest nephew is a pro at smirking (which is just all kinds of unfair, because I’m one of the few in my family that can’t do that at all) and has the deepest chuckle that I have ever heard in my life. (Which, again, is saying something because both of my brothers have some of the, previously believed to be, lowest voices in my family and they chuckle more often than they laugh. (How my 15-year-old nephew went from soprano to bass in his vocals seemingly over night, I will never know. Seriously, that kid didn’t have a voice that cracked even a little bit! My niece’s voice cracked a little when it change from first soprano to first alto/second soprano! That gangly kid is something else…)
So I hadn’t realized before this moment that many people believe that smirking or chuckling is something that only exists in literature rather than in real life.
I had to even stop and share this with my nephew and he didn’t believe for a moment because he is either being a straight man or sitting there smirking like a little brat.
And the chuckling! Over 90% of my life hearing my dad when he’s doing some kind of laugh has been listening to him chuckle! He doesn’t really laugh, he just quietly chuckles.
This is just really throwing me for a loop!
I- I must go do something else before I expend all of today’s energy being confused and ranting at posts on my computer.
Have you ever been so tired that your nephew threatened to take away your laptop if you kept trying to do family history while that tired?
This actually happens to me a lot. Check out the original One-liner Wednesday.
I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time with my sister’s youngest boy this week and I’m really glad. We’ve had a lot of fun and gotten quite a bit of work done as well. His siblings have spent the last week visiting other family members in the next valley over so it’s just been us during the day.
We’ve had a lot of fun.
Check out the original Thankful Thursday.
You are going to be killed by hunger or by bad things and lose all our meat and wool.
What I just said to my nephew while we play Minecraft together while on break from constructing our new rabbit run.
Check out the original One-Liner Wednesday.
Nothing is said as he reaches out his arms for a hug.
Seriously, my eldest nephew just really likes hugs, but he’s not the most verbal of people and so he’ll just hold out his arms. They always make me feel better.
Check out the original One-Liner Wednesday.
Breathing In 