playing

Family Game

Tuesday 04 December 2018

We had a little family game time this evening. L came downstairs and asked if we could play Forbidden Island or whatever that game that has a 15+ page instruction book is called. I’d laughed at the rules earlier when L and K were trying to figure it out: three different decks of cards (or is it four), multiple little things you can do, a turn that seems to last forever — it just seemed overly complicated.

Tonight, I sat down with them and let them explain it. Fairly simple when it comes down to it — I guess I just wasn’t willing to do the work at the beginning, digging through the instructions and figuring it out.

It’s interesting in that instead of playing against the other players, you’re all trying to accomplish the same goal. Cooperation instead of competition.

A great way to spend the evening.

Bethel Bash 2018

Friday 12 October 2018

Wednesday Evening Vignettes

Wednesday 10 October 2018

In a flash, the cherry tomatoes were rolling across the concrete floor like greased bearings -- E had been unloading the shopping cart when, in a moment of slightly careless abandon, the container of tomatoes crashed into the side of the buggy as he was lifting them out, then crashed to the floor.

"It was an accident!" he said, looking up at me.

"Well, clean up the accident, then."

He began picking up the tomatoes and hustling them to a garbage can. Behind us, a mother and her daughter, probably around four, stood watching. When E returned for another load, the little girl walked over and began picking up tomatoes with him.

When we returned home, K and L were in the midst of figuring out a new board game. Well, not quite a board game -- there's no board to speak of. Still, a game. An exceedingly complicated game. With multiple decks of cards. And two different sets of tokens. And so many rules to remember that it seemed impossible that a human could keep that many exceptions in her mind at once.

Of course, I started making silly comments.

L, very much wanting to play, naturally got a little irritated with my silliness.

E, content to entertain himself, worked with Legos as all this went on.

And K, determined to make it through all the instructions -- a multi-page book, mind you, not just a few short paragraphs on the underside of the box -- kept explaining the game to us.

"We have fifteen minutes before it's E's bedtime," K said. "We have a little time to play." Between all the complicated rules and steps, everyone got a single turn in those fifteen minutes.