1. Welcome back to Auspicious It Ain’t, the pass/fail hardship
challenge that I am currently passing… barely.
To recap, Ygraine is a divorced single mother raising Genevive and
Beaudelaire on a very limited income. She is restricted to only a
few career tracks and she is forbidden from earning more than one
point in most skills. The children have no such restrictions, but
they are still children.
Yes, I am aware that both “Genevive” and “Beaudelaire” are
misspelled, but at least I got “Ygraine” right. Shall we proceed?

2. The rotation got off to a good start: everyone was up, bathed, and
dressed in good order. Ygraine and Beaudelaire were both rather
low on Fun, but Red Hands is wonderful for fixing that… not to
mention that it’s free.

3. Later that same day, Ygraine got promoted thanks to a good chance
card…

4. …and Beaudelaire came home with an A+ report card.
See? Red Hands before the carpool really does work!

5. Now, I don’t know if you read the popup in that screenshot of
Ygraine’s promotion, but it gave her work hours… after the kids
are home from school.
Genevive is a sensible girl, and she called for a nanny right away.
(This is allowed under the challenge rules provided the family can
afford it.) She then encouraged the nanny to watch TV instead of
harming anything, and took care of herself and her brother.
TALK SHOW HOST ON TV: Zeeshan… you ARE the father!
ZEESHAN ON TV: No! I ain’t! I cain’t be! My wife’ll kill me!
AUDIENCE ON TV: (shrieks of delight)

6. Fortunately for the family’s bank account, Genevive transitioned to
Teen that same night.
In the bathroom, naturally.
GENEVIVE: Thank you for your help. We won’t be needing you
anymore.
NANNY: But now where will I watch Who’s Your Daddy?

7. Genevive then proceeded to fix the sink, because she’s kind of
awesome like that.
Also, Ygraine had already earned her one Mechanical skill point.
For those who are interested in such things, Genevive is a Pleasure
Sim who likes Charismatic and Athletic people, as long as they
aren’t too Logical.

8. Ygraine came home shortly thereafter, having been fired thanks to
a bad chance card.

9. The next day, I had Ygraine take the first job in the paper: EMT.
Her new work schedule gave her the day off, but secure in the
knowledge that she had a good paycheck due to start coming in,
Ygraine paid some bills and settled in to enjoy the free day.

10. She spent plenty of time in the garden, for one thing. Gardening
raises Fun and is quite useful. I will admit, though, that its
usefulness is more of a long-term thing than a short-term one. The
Rossi family will eventually save money on their grocery bill, but
right now it costs them a fair amount of time.

11. Not that Ygraine grudges it. In fact, if her face is anything to go by,
she’s probably humming to herself.

12. Ygraine used her previous promotion bonus to spruce up the
kitchen a bit and to buy the family a dartboard. This made new-
minted Pleasure Sim Genevive very happy indeed.

13. She also dropped rather a lot of money on a sewing machine. I’m
not entirely sure why I thought this would be a good idea. Yes, it
would help Ygraine to earn her one allowable Creativity point, and
yes, it’s against the rules to sell easel paintings, so an easel would
not help the family budget. But an easel costs one-third the price of
this sewing machine. I think that I was thinking that it was a
logical investment for a family on a budget, since it would allow
them to make their own clothes.
I don’t have Free Time. They can’t make any clothes, or any other
craftables either. And according to the rules, I can only sell an item
to replace it with a more expensive one, so we’re stuck with it.

14. Even worse, about two hours before the carpool was due to pick
Ygraine up, I realized that EMT is in the Medicine career track.
Ygraine is not allowed to take a job in the Medicine career track.
I had her quit the job immediately (pictured above). Since Ygraine
didn’t actually go to work or get any benefit from being in the
track, I think I can say that I haven’t lost the challenge. Still, it was
a whole day wasted when she could have been working.

15. At least the kitchen looks nice, right?
I’ll have to see about getting Genevive a job next rotation. Not
only will it help with the finances, but it could help with
scholarships. Genevive wants to Go To College, but the rules say
that she can’t unless she earns at least $2,500 in scholarships. That
could be tough…
And that’s all I have this time around! You don’t get many chances
for pictures in this challenge. Until next time, Happy Simming!