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399th Friday Blog Roundup

This is the 399th Friday Blog Roundup, by which I mean it’s actually the 299th Friday Blog Roundup.  Many years ago, the numbering went off the rails and it jumped 100 Roundups.  But I can’t really go back to fix it because there was a Roundup already labeled the 299th Roundup.  It would mean changing the number on several hundred Roundups, and as much as I love all of you, I wasn’t going to do that.  So this is really the 299th Roundup, which makes next week the 300th Roundup (called the 400th Roundup).  Still an impressive feat all things considered.  How many blog projects last six years and occur weekly?

To celebrate, I’m going to ask you to find one post between now and next Wednesday on someone’s else’s blog within the last 2 years (going for the last 100 possible Roundups) that you still think about.  But here is the fun part…

  • You’re going to submit the URL for the post.  Make sure you have the permalink that takes you directly to that post and NOT the main URL for the blog (main URLs will not be uploaded).  Yes: https://www.stirrup-queens.com/2012/06/supreme-court-affordable-care-act-and-infertility/.  No: https://stirrup-queens.com
  • And submit the blog title — NOT the post title.  The list will be a gathering of blog names, and you won’t know which post it directs to on that blog until you click over to read.  Yes: Stirrup Queens.  No: Supreme Court, Affordable Care Act, and Infertility.

Think of it like a Christmas crackers blog list — you don’t know what you’re getting until it pops open.

When you know which one you want to submit, please click here and fill out this form.  Don’t overthink this one because I can only take submissions until next Wednesday evening (let’s say the cut-off is 9 pm EST).  The list will appear next Friday in lieu of the normal Roundup.

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week as well as the week before.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

Okay, now my choices this week.

Baby, Borneo or Bust has a brilliant, thought-provoking post on internal vs. external change.  She writes: “I have come to realize that as much as external change is important and rewarding, internal change is even more vital and exponentially harder.”  It’s a post that explains why we bring the weather with us, even when we switch locations.  Why we can’t un-run ourselves.  I love love love this post.

Searching for Our Silver Lining has a raw post about stopping fertility treatments and what comes after.  She marks the end of those 2 1/2 years stating: “There have been tears and anger. Despair and numbness. We both feel lied to, blaming ourselves and the world for this pain. Yet, in the end, both Grey and I know that this is the end. We’ve fought a good fight; it’s time to let go.”  It’s about finding the ability to let go.

Mrs. Spock has a post about wrapping her brain around a change in life plans, something that many of us have had to do numerous times.  She admits: “It is difficult to re-program my brain. I had never expected a family of four, so I don’t have those memory banks full of daydreams with a family of four. Something always seems missing. How very human of me.”  It’s beautiful, lilting writing.

If You Don’t Stand for Something has a great post about becoming an aunt-by-choice to her fictive kin, and how she turned out to feel different from how she predicted.  She says, “Something happened between prepping for the momma’s baby shower and now and things are so much smoother and the baby stuff surrounding her is so much easier on me.”  It comes down to feeling understood, feeling heard.  Amazing how that can release you to feel so much love.

Infertile Fantasies has a post about using her leftover embryos amongst other things.  There is a lot to chew on here.  But I love the points she makes about finding that balance between being everything to her children and reaching a point in life when she needs to also return to having some of her own achievements and milestones.  Gorgeous post.

Lastly, The Road Less Travelled has a brilliant post about her confidence over the years and how she feels that with age, she is fading aside as younger, faster people move into the slots she used to occupy.  But how that lack of confidence may not necessarily be a bad thing.  She so eloquently states: “In some ways, age and experience do bring wisdom. But in other ways, I find the older I get, the less confidence I have. Perhaps I’ve seen & experienced too much to be too certain or confident of anything any more — least of all myself.”

Who cares about the summer slowdown when moving slower makes people write such dense, wonderful posts?

The roundup to the Roundup: Tell me one post you still think about from someone else’s blog and honour their writing in the Roundup Extravaganza next week.  And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between June 22nd and June 29th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week?  Read the original open thread post here.

14 comments

1 Stephanie { 06.29.12 at 11:38 am }

OK, I HAVE to link to Creative Devolution’s post from today. She’s one of my all-time favourite bloggers, and her illustrated posts are hilarious. Today she wrote a bit about baby-making. (Spoiler alert: I died laughing at the picture of women pumping out babies)

http://www.creativedevolution.com/a-whole-lot-of-no-babies-coming-out-of-me/

2 Ana { 06.29.12 at 12:07 pm }

Just to thank Stephanie for that link…I just spit cake onto my keyboard laughing. (kind of sad…it was good cake…but worth it)

3 rachel { 06.29.12 at 3:34 pm }

I loved Loribeth’s post! That woman inspires me so much. 🙂

Also, Mazel Tov on 299! That is quite the accomplishment.

Off to figure out which post I want to put here…

4 Becky { 06.29.12 at 3:43 pm }

Also loved Stephanie’s link – thank you for sharing!

5 mrs spock { 06.29.12 at 5:07 pm }

Thanks for the mention! I love Stephanie’s link- that drawing of babies shooting out of women;s bodies is quite snort-inducing!

6 Kimberly { 07.01.12 at 5:03 pm }

Thank you so much for the mention! I think I spent the rest of the day with a smile on my face. 🙂

7 Mali { 07.01.12 at 11:51 pm }

Just wanted to say congrats on the 299th Roundup. That’s an amazing achievement! And the 300th Roundup idea is a great one. Though it was hard to remember the posts that had truly moved me. In the end I chose one that made me want to stand up and cheer.

8 Elizabeth :: Bébé Suisse { 07.02.12 at 5:03 am }

Sass’s post on the unexpected benefits of involuntary breaks really resonated with me:

http://fertilityunexplained.blogspot.ch/2012/06/lessons-learned-its-okay-to-take-break.html

9 St. Elsewhere { 07.02.12 at 5:50 am }

Two posts stayed with me this week:

http://apparentlywelladjusted.blogspot.in/2012/06/beauty-of-storm.html (The Beauty of a Storm)

http://ivf-fiv.blogspot.in/2012/06/perfect-moment-monday-mont-blanc.html (Perfect Moment Monday – Mont Blanc)

10 Kathy { 07.02.12 at 10:36 am }

Congrats on 299/399 and looking forward to seeing/clicking through to read the post for next Friday! It was very hard for me to choose just one post to share a link to for the 300th/400th, but I did it. Maybe one of these days I will write one of those posts like Jjraffe did not that long ago about the blog posts that have stayed with her over the years, as there were so many that came to mind, it was difficult to narrow it down.

11 Kathy { 07.02.12 at 10:37 am }

P.S. I meant read the posts! 🙂 I wish there was a way to edit our own comments/typos…

12 loribeth { 07.02.12 at 2:12 pm }

Thanks for the shoutout, Mel. : ) I got my inspiration from Mali (who was previously featured in the Roundup), & now Deathstar has written her own variation on the theme that is also worth a read:
http://awomanmyage.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/confidence/#comment-3196

Between work & a new round of genealogy obsession, I am waayyyyyy behind on my blog reading & commenting… but I will try to think of a contribution to Roundup 300 before the deadline.

13 Bea { 07.03.12 at 9:14 am }

Ooh! I’m here! Always an honour.

But holy crap, ONE post? Um… gosh… I’m blank… let me think about this one…

Bea

14 Justine { 07.05.12 at 9:28 pm }

I think I’m too late for the Fabulous Roundup, but perhaps for another Roundup … I love this: http://loveandchaosreign.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/independence-day/ … it’s about learning to believe again. In anything. And in ourselves.

(c) 2006 Melissa S. Ford
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