Mindset is Key

Along with the word that irks me the most: "can't" or when my 3 y/o says it: ke-YA-nt.
Gosh, you gotta hear this child. XD

So, I know it seems like all I am doing is playing games, but I have never attended so many webinars in my life. My husband, my mama, and my sister are questioning why I do this. Next year, is going to be one of the most challenging years and I want to be ready for it. (I think all of August is going to be filled with webinars as well.)

I am the kind of person who tends to be really pessimistic about myself, but optimistic for others. I would never tell anyone to just give up, but I also question myself all the time if I need to give up. 

Last school year was my 2nd year teaching in a middle school but my 1st year teaching 6th grade. I came in excited but also questioning (like always) why I was placed there. I believe that God puts as where we really need to be -- so why in 6th grade?

It was really early on that I realized that there's so many things I cannot do teaching in 6th grade. 

1. I cannot be sarcastic -- oh! If you know Filipinos, you know this is "us". 

2. I cannot give them a set of instructions and expect them to read it all.

3. I cannot just expect that they know a concept that I knew when I was their age or that they should have known.

That's where the struggle began. This is where I knew I should change my mindset. I started to think through that first trimester that maybe I am looking at this the wrong way -- my husband tells me all the time that I'm stressed (the inside joke is that I was born worried and stressed that I won't be able to be born which is why I was born a month early). Here's the thing, I LOVE BEING A TEACHER. There is nowhere in the world I would rather be than in the classroom. I have known this since pre-k, as my cousins who were always pulled into my make-shift classroom.

So I shifted my mindset and really made improvement -- slowly. I had a lot of help from my friends and team (I love them so much, I do think they're my friends too -- I just wanted to specifically mention my 6th grade team).

I was reminded throughout the year that

1. I can practice really choosing positive words to encourage the kids.

2. I can be clear and specific with a step by step instruction so I won't need to repeat later.

3. I can teach and re-teach as needed - because this why I became a teacher. I wanted to impart knowledge and help shape the younger generation for a better future.

I am here to help.

I cannot help if you are unwilling to accept help.

The first step is to accept that you need help -- and then TRY, and TRY AGAIN.

For this school year might be the most challenging not just for teachers but for students as well. But 

We will rise above the challenge 

and change our "I can't" into an "I can".

Mineral Town 010

§4,847 Monday funds.

After the renovations we're down a little bit, not a lot. The harvestables are bringing stable income, so after selling those we're back at almost §6k.

I'm still having a problem with the meat plant and I'm about to just take those out all together. Anyway, after the field work today, Clair had a bit of time to go in to the village and we're up to 8 friends! (Including Kai and Cliff).

Mineral Town Challenge 009

So many things happen when it's Sunday.

It was renovation day because Clair has finally unlocked Handiness level 4, and she has enough money, and village friends to get a bigger house, and land.

We're going all out.

Mineral Town Challenge 008

Super excited to use the brand new addition to the Clair cooked right away this morning!

Yup! She dropped the whole thing of pepper in there.. We're working on her cooking skill.

After hump day, the week seem to have flown by! Foraging is pretty much an everyday thing now.

Clair saw a good friend while fishing, and she decided to mentor her. She may be younger but she's been fishing so much more -- Aah, youth! 

Mineral Town Challenge 007

We actually got our first Mail! (Bills)
It was §441, so Clair's funds dropped from §1,381 (simoleons) to §940. Planning to start upgrading the house, I think we should begin with a stove -- Clair's always getting a moodlet about getting sick of instant food ^^; While it's free, it also makes the sim unsatisfied.

Look who came by to visit while we're doing upgrades!

Mineral Town Challenge 006

I don't really get to play everyday so most of the time the blog posts are after playing 2-3 in-game days and then posting 1 picture on Insta at a time. Yesterday though, I was not able to post a picture because too many things were going on in real life and long story short, I just was not able to play at all. ^^;; 

Posting a Screenshot as proof that Clair has now, 5 different kinds of harvestables to sell. The breakdown:

40 Strawberries -- $360 (Normal Quality)

30 Apples -- $90 (Normal Q)

30 Grapes -- $90 (NQ)

30 Plantain -- $90 (NQ)

40 Mushroom -- $40 (NQ)

Total: 670

In order to unlock level 2 for land (to plant more) we need to get another $330. The rules, in case someone is actually reading these blog posts :P 

After selling all those things (also selling the little store I created because it didn't work) we are now at 1,381 simoleons!

At 10:43am, she finished taking care of the current field (including the cow plant) and she's headed to the library because according to the rules, we're not to remove the HUGE rocks until she's level 4 in Handiness. Time to study!

She actually has not met Mary yet! She kinda looks like a know-it-all, but she's very sweet (I had to do her remake version so she looks like that ^^;;)

click this to make it bigger

Her facial expressions were too funny! But now she has Handiness lvl 2.

Since today is technically her 1st weeksary I think she should go visit an old friend (we need 5 friends [relationship over 35] to be able to meet Kai <3

To show as proof, I took a screenshot of her friend list as well. :D

^_^ We're ready for Kai!!

Also, look at the sweet siblings here! Awww, I just had to take a picture of them too. (Also, this was NPC autonomous action, love it!)

Mineral Town Challenge 005

This will be for in-game Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

I'm blogging this with the days because I have no plans of buying Seasons (I hate rain!! So I wouldn't want it in my game) therefore I need to just note my 28x4 (for the full year count) because it is needed in the challenge. It dictates that I lose if my character does not get married at the end of the 3rd year. ^^;;

Clair's funds are down to $200 something and her garden/field has not grown any. We all know our cow's fake (because I am not going to purchase Cats & Dogs either). So with every "cow" she has, a Cow Plant Berry will be planted. There's no way to make money right now, but in GBA Harvest Moon games, foraging will always get you through the firsts 2 weeks until you can actually have a nice income from your plants.

So Thursday, I had Clair go to Oasis Spring to try and forage -- nothing!! I remembered Sims can go fishing! (Like in HM too!) So we tried for that.

She got one!!

Just like HM, sometimes we just get trash...

Here comes my buddy Jeff ... and cameo by Mayor Thomas!

Clair's fishing level went up to level 2. With this she started getting more fish than trash the next day! More fishing done (not pictured), and when she went to the restaurant that evening Cliff actually came by to talk!!! (Yes, I'm excited because of pixels!)

She went home to check on the plants and they're still not bearing fruits T_T I want to get more seeds but again, we're so low on funds. We're foraging tomorrow for sure.

Saturday, I didn't even have to make her go to the other world!! Around the neighborhood there were shiny stuff so let's go!

You can pick flowers and wild berries to sell,

We're a little obsessed with fishing now, also today everyone decided to join me! xD

That's that! On that note, the next post will be about Clair's 1 weeksary as a farmer!
Yup, that's a made-up word.

Mineral Town Challenge 004

Clair de Lune continues to befriend the villagers. She made it to the supermarket and it looks like everyone was there! Wasn't that lucky? :P

She was able to meet a few new people and got to really try make some good talk with Manna and the Mayor. (I'm trying not to talk to them too much -- because in the GBA game you could probably try to build clout just about 3x a day.) 

Also, Cliff is so hard to find! (Just like in the GBA game, lol) Finally, spotted him and got to sit and talk with him for a little bit!

Do you see him? Yeah, they started talking like this.

He actually sat and chat with Clair!

We're running out of money pretty quick -- I may have to try to get her to forage or fish soon. Starting out with 500 is not easy at all.

According to the challenge, I cannot get chickens yet until Land Level 2. I'm so sad!! So Clair visited the Poultry Farm to make friends with Popuri. 

Well, Popuri said Clair can play with the chickens! That was super fun!

Mineral Town Challenge 003

Sunday 8:25am, the challenge has officially started. Clair has met quite a few people.

There's the Mayor, Saibara and May

Elli, Anna, and Basil (I think Stu is there as well).

The next morning the plan was to go out and meet more villagers. She actually woke up to the welcome wagon! (Lucky!)

Mineral Town Challenge 002

I will be following (I promise I picked some challenging stuff here):
Again it's a mix between Briar Rosethorn's Mineral Town Challenge (MTC) and FerralNightingal's Harvest Moon Rivals Challenge (HMRC).

These Challenges were not made by me. I am mainly taking notes so I have the rules in 1 page.

General Rules
Reviving Your Farm
Marriage
Marriage Candidate Unlock Conditions
Upgrades
How can you lose?

Mineral Town Challenge 001

I will be using both Briar Rosethorn's Mineral Town Challenge and FerralNightingal's Harvest Moon Rivals Challenge for my game-play. The reason for this is because I do not have all the packs that would let me do the MTC, and the HMRC which is an older challenge lets me tweak it so that I won't need to do certain things. It also has stricter objectives (just like in the original GBA HM MMoMT).

I just don't think I would ever get the Cats and Dogs Expansion, so I am opting for CowPlants and the chicken coop mod by icemunmun instead. While I am thinking of getting Eco Living to get the meat vertical plant (and I am genuinely interested in this pack more than others); I will have to wait for a sale.

The first rule in MTC is that you start on a Sunday (just like the gba game), so since I was not able to download her wonderful save file I had to head on to the EA gallery to grab all the houses and townies and edit them with all the CCs in the world I could get my hands on to make it look like the authentic version of the game. She was gracious enough to help me set-up all the relationships of the townies with each other. I made a spreadsheet for this. I learned a couple of things that my mind as a child did not quite notice when we were talking about the families. 

With LittleMissSam's Live in Business mod, I was able to set up the Aja Winery, Zack's Snack Shack, and Doug's restaurant as retail (and a house). Although, I did not know that right away so I actually had to evict the Doctor and Jeff's families and make their houses as retail (and then have them buy it as a store). I'm telling you, it took forever to get Elli in that hiring list (I even put retail skill cheats in); it took 2 hours of refreshing!! Thank goodness for LittleMissSam's Retail Overhaul I got Sasha to be the store manager pretty easy. 

The other townies look like this:

Here are the Mineral Town People 💚🌻 Let's Play!
Posted by Spica Walker on Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Since I had to do all the set up, my game was already on Wednesday evening when I got done -- so I just sort of play tested a few families (Popuri's, Ann's, and Karen's) to keep time moving.

Let's Play: Sims 4 Harvest Moon Mineral Town Challenge

My 2 favorite games mashed together -- what else could beat that? (I guess if there were Pokemon in it). I found this post around late June in one of the groups I follow in Facebook. Briar Rosethorn in Sims Community (also Snarky Witch on EA Gallery) has made a replica of Harvest Moon's Mineral Town and all it's townies!

Here's a little preview of the town that she has spent a lot of time remaking! Click here to see more pictures. She used no CC but she has all the packs.

She has also made all the townies including the bachelors and bachelorettes of the town modeled after their Harvest Moon GBA counterparts. Since I only have the Base Game, University, and Get to Work expansions - - I actually downloaded a bunch of CC to make mine compare to my beloved GBA game and to what Briar has made.

Karen

Popuri

Ann

Elli

Mary

Doctor Trent

Rick

Kai

Gray

Cliff

I'm excited to play! I have worked on editing the town and townies, because of my lack of packs for about a week XD (a few hours at a time -- because I play with my kids too, lol).