New Salem 9/30/19

Both Ethan and Olivia Clark got promoted this round, putting them both on 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. shifts.  This works really well now that the twins are in school because everyone will be out during the day and home at night.

Poor Jayden Hill can't seem to catch a break.  The day started off routine enough: go to work, shower, nap, chat with a friend on the phone.  After that things went south.  He decided to go out to Interactive to try to meet someone nice.  Unfortunately the only single lady who showed up was Isabella Adams, who Jayden can't stand.  They argued for a good portion of the night and then Jayden decided to call it a day and head home.  No sooner had his head hit the pillow than a burglar showed up!  It took several tries to call the police because he kept getting scared, but finally they arrived and carted the guy off to jail.  At least he got enough insurance money to replace the stolen items.  Poor guy.

Isabella also went out this round, looking to snag a guy, and I was pretty excited when William Lee showed up.  That didn't last long though because these two don't like each other either.  What is it about Isabella that she can't get along with anyone?  We're running out of single guys here, seems like she's aiming for a married one.  Sigh.

Happy Simming!

New Salem 9/29/19

Juliet White had a mediocre date with Michael Edwards.  Upon returning home, she rolled up another date want, so they might go out again.  They have good chemistry, but Michael is definitely not the settling down type, so I'm not sure if it'll go anywhere.

Michael's house was up next, and though he did roll a generic date want, he didn't roll any wants for Juliet.  In fact, at the end of the round he started rolling wants for Jessica Young (his baby mama one night stand).  So I guess we'll have to see what happens here.

That's all folks!  Happy Simming!

New Salem 9/28/19

I thought the Nicholson triplets would be growing up this round, but I was mistaken.  It appears they won't be growing up for another "year".  Lol, the chaos continues.

Middle child Megan Parker grew into a child this round which makes the adult to toddler ratio 4:2.  I'm sure grandparents Daniel and Chloe are excited about that given that they are the ones in charge in the evenings while both Aiden and Mia are working.

And that's all for today.  Happy Simming!

New Salem 9/27/19

The youngest Baker, Hannah, aged up to child this round.  Apart from that nothing too exciting.  I was hoping Jacob would get promoted, but he didn't.  Nevertheless, the family had just enough money to redo Hannah's room.  Hopefully the promotion will come next round.

William Lee's youngest daughter also aged up to child this round.  Now that Grace will be off to school with her sisters every day, I'm hoping William will start rolling up some wants for jobs.  They don't really need the money at the moment, but they will in time and at least he'd have something to do all day.

That's all for today.  Happy Simming!

New Salem 9/26/19

Only one family today: the Clarks.  The twins, Lucy and Noah, grew into children this winter which makes things a bit easier on the chaotic household.  This will be the status quo for a while since the older boys won't be leaving for college for another three years and the middle girls won't age to teen for four years.

Happy Simming!

New Salem 9/25/19

There are only three students currently at the witch school: Madison Clark, Lisa Adams, and Spencer White.  Madison's alignment is evil; she will likely found the first evil coven in town.  Lisa and Spencer are both neutral and they're going steady.  I haven't completely decided what I'm going to do with neutral witches yet, apart from them being able to teach at witch school.  I know I want evil covens to work in the Paranormal career and do evil spells, etc. and good covens will do good spells and run potion shops.  I'm thinking neutral witches might be something earth related like Natural Science careers or gardening, but I'm not sure whether they will form covens or simply live among mortals.  In addition to these three, one of the instructors (Helga) has a set of triplets: Hans, Heidi, and Hermina.  They're currently toddlers and running their mother ragged.  Technically Helga is also pregnant, but she has not "popped" nor given birth (despite being at least 3 days past her time), so I don't really know what is going on with her.  Time will tell I suppose.

And that's it for this round.  Next round will be Winter and everyone will be aging one day (= one year).  Since time moves so slowly here, there won't necessarily be anything to report for a given family, so I will likely only comment on those that have something interesting going on, like an actual age up, pregnancy, new relationship, etc.  Until next time, Happy Simming!

New Salem 9/24/19

The Parkers are a large family with parents (Aiden and Mia), grandparents (Chloe and Daniel), and four kids: Evan (child), Megan (toddler), and twin toddlers Kevin and Ryan.  While this is always a busy household, this round was much calmer than last round in which I had a gardener glitch in which about 40 gardeners got spawned and each one had to be dismissed individually.  This round in comparison was much less stressful.  Since both parents work at night, during the day the ratio of adults to children is 4/3, which is great.  Once Aiden and Mia leave, however, Chloe and Daniel are outnumbered 2/1.  Evan does a pretty good job of taking care of himself luckily and since Megan has already learned all her toddler skills that helps.  Next round should get a bit easier because Megan will age up.

Juliet White is the single mother of a teen son (Spencer), who was sent to witch school.  She's not completely alone though because her father Anthony lives with her as well.  Ever since Spencer left, however, Juliet has been at loose ends without much direction in her life.  She hasn't met too many people in town and spends most of her time with her dad.

Michael Edwards is a single guy who is making a living writing "self-help" books.  He's not very good at it, but it keeps him supplied with pizza.  He went on one date with Jessica Young, which resulted in him becoming a father to a baby he's never had any contact with.  He seems okay with this situation, never rolling any wants for his child or Jessica.  He's ready to move on and date someone else, but that hasn't happened so far.

Happy Simming!

New Salem 9/23/19

Jessica Young is a single woman who is raising her infant daughter Rebecca alone after what amounts to a one night stand with Michael Edwards (he'll be played later).  Even though Jessica has 3 bolts for Michael and is still in love with him, they've only ever had the one date and neither has rolled a want for another, nor any other romantic wants for each other.  The most I've seen from Jessica is a fear that he might die, which certainly doesn't mean she wants to marry the guy.  In fact, this round she was mostly rolling nature type wants and the want to meet someone new, so I don't know what will happen, but we'll see.

William Lee is a single dad with three daughters: twin teens Ivy and Laura and toddler Grace.  He spends most of his time caring for Grace and consequently hasn't met too many people in town.  He has met Isabella Adams (see last post) and I think they'd make a great pair, but neither has shown any interest so far.  Neither of his older daughters seems to want to date either, so I'm sure he's relieved about that.

The Nicholsons (Alexander and Emily) had three daughters: teen Theresa, child Angela, and toddler Veronica.  They decided to try once more for that elusive boy, but they got much more than they bargained for when triplets arrived: Andrew, Benjamin, and Christina.  The household is in perpetual chaos now.  Theresa takes care of Angie and Veronica, while her parents struggle to keep up with three babies who never want to eat or sleep at the same time.  Not to mention they are trying to maintain full time jobs as well.  Money is tight, the house is a disaster, and everyone's exhausted.  The babies will grow up next round, but will it be better or worse having 4 toddlers at once?

The Smith family consists of: Elizabeth, her mother Ella, and her two children Simon (teen) and Sarah (child).  Elizabeth has trouble making ends meet most of the time, but having her mom around to help out with Sarah at least saves money on nannies.  Simon also has a job, and between them they're able to just squeak by, though they don't have many luxuries.  Ella's main concern is getting married.  There aren't many eligible senior bachelors in town, but maybe she'll get lucky.

That's it for today!  Happy Simming!

New Salem 9/22/19

First up in the rotation is the Clark/Fairchild family.  The Clarks (Ethan and Olivia) had triplet teens (Dylan, Logan, and Madison) and a child daughter (Talia).  Their teen daughter Madison was declared a witch and sent to the witch school.  Shortly thereafter, they became the foster parents to the Fairchild children (child Phoebe and twin toddlers Lucy and Noah) after their mother died.  Phoebe and Talia are the same age and get along well, while the older boys are a great help with the twins.  They still see Madison during summer vacation, but she's beginning to lose touch with the family.

Jayden Hill is a single guy who works in the Athletic career and hasn't met too many people in town yet.  Hopefully he'll meet someone eventually, but he's got plenty of time.

The Bakers consist of grandmother Sophia, parents Emma and Jacob, and children Ezra (teen), David (child), and Hannah (toddler).  Though they live in a very nice house, money is a little tight right now as Jacob has only recently started working in a Law firm.  Ezra has a teen job as well, but it obviously doesn't bring in much money.  Though most of the family members are close, there is surprisingly little relationship between Sophia and Emma, despite the fact that they spend their days together taking care of Hannah.  Maybe Sophia doesn't thing Emma is good enough for her son?  Or maybe Emma resents having her mother-in-law living with them?  Idk.  Maybe they'll work something out eventually.

Isabella Adams is a single mother to teen witch Lisa, who is currently studying at witch school.  Isabella's greatest wish is to have another child, but so far has been unlucky in the romance department.  She's only met one man (Jacob Baker) and he's not only married, but she can't stand him.  Consequently, she's pretty lonely most of the time.

That's all for today.  Happy Simming!

New Salem 9/21/19

I'm baa-ack!  I'm moving on to New Salem now, which as you may have guessed is a town about witchcraft.  The basic premise is that, rather than being persecuted, witches are in charge here.  When a teen is found to have "talents" he/she is sent to the witch school.  I have borrowed the name of the school, it's four houses, and it's founding teachers from Harry Potter.  Admittedly I know very little about Harry Potter in the first place, so I'm not offended by using these names. 

A main difference between this 'hood and others I play is the timeline.  Here I'm playing a much slower timeline where I play each household for one day, changing the season each round, but only aging sims once per "year" in winter.  In effect, each day equals 3 months or one season.  This allows pregnancy to last the appropriate amount of time, children to be born closer together in age, and for sims to develop relationships over a longer period of time.  I'm also having triplets as an option here, despite not having the triplets/quads hack.  I'm getting around it by sending 3rd trimester moms to a community hospital (apartment building) where aging is also off, so that once the first baby (or babies) is born, the mom can have a second pregnancy immediately.

Since this town is still young, there are only a few students at witch school and no one has gone to Uni yet.  There have been a few babies born and there was one accidental death, resulting in a single mother's children being put into the foster care of another family.  There will eventually be covens, but as no witches have reached adulthood yet, that idea hasn't been fully developed yet.  For now it's mostly a bunch of normal families, living normal lives, hoping their children aren't witches.

I will update family by family, starting with a background story since they've all been played a bit already, then continuing with updates as new or interesting things happen.  Since it's played so slowly a lot of times nothing of note is going on, so I may skip those households that were uneventful, or just post less frequently so there's more to tell.

That's enough for now.  First post may be today or tomorrow.  So for now, Happy Simming!