501st Friday Blog Roundup
I am not a fan of applying sunscreen. I’m a fan of sunscreen protecting our skin, but the application process sucks. If I could hire someone to follow us around and rub in our sunscreen, I probably would. I don’t like touching sunscreen, and you’re supposed to rub in even the spray sunscreens. But the bigger issue is that my hands are so large and the twins’ faces are so tiny. It’s hard to rub that sunscreen in when your thumb is the size of their entire cheek.
I use it because the alternative is so much worse than the annoyance of having white goop on my hands that won’t wash off. I use it even though our skin is such that we’ve never gotten a sunburn. I use it, but I don’t like it. So I’m going to complain about it.
I am such a fan of long sleeves, long pants, and no sunscreen. I am also unfortunately a fan of the beach. They don’t always go hand-in-hand.
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Happy 4th of July if you live in America!
Or if you’re American but don’t live in America.
Or if you’re visiting America today.
I love watching fireworks, though I’m not a fan of big crowds or being too close to fireworks. But we’ve found this hill where we can sit and watch them go off without needing to be around more than a handful of people. It’s cozy. It’s pretty. And the sound doesn’t line up with the fireworks making it feel like a bad lip-sync. I love it.
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DON’T SKIP THIS SECTION, SLACKER!
Time for your weekly nag:
This is just your friendly nudge to do your weekly backup. I know, I know, who has the time to create backups on a weekly basis? No one. But you still need to do it and forgo ten minutes of something else, once a week. Right now, before you do anything else, use this post to roll through a quick backup of your email, documents, images, blog, social media accounts, and mobile devices. Reading the Roundup on the go and don’t have the ability to do your backup right now? Email yourself a copy of the Roundup so that the email will serve as a visual reminder to get this task done. Ten minutes of your time once a week may save you a major loss of time and data down the road. Don’t have regrets. So, on your marks, get set, back up!
As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.
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And now the blogs…
But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:
- “Guest Post: Jason’s Take” (The Long and Winding Road… to Parenthood)
- “Coming Out of the (Broom) Closet” (The Empty Cookie)
- “Slowly” (The Polka-Dot Umbrella)
- “How to Respond?” (Constant in the Darkness)
- “Decade” (Searching for Our Silver Lining)
- “Body Image” (Searching for Our Silver Lining)
Okay, now my choices this week.
Persnickety Chickadee asks whether the family building journey will be worth it in the end. She asks: “Am I over idealising the idea of children? Or at this point child?” It’s an impossible question to answer because everyone will process it differently. The reality of children for the most part fits my pre-thoughts on children. For other people, the reality of children doesn’t fit their pre-thoughts on children. And others claim to know how the reality of children is without experiencing children based on things they’ve observed or read. And others came in with no expectations and therefore have no point of reference for what they thought before they had children. And all of this adds up to the point that no one can help you decide or know what is best for you. Which means anything people tell you about whether you’ll be happy or sad having children (or happy or sad having more children) is simply assvice that usually speaks more to their mindset than yours. As I said in her comment section: “it really is a ‘your mileage may vary’ situation. What is true for one person isn’t true for another. I don’t see children as a hassle, but that is ME. Other people see children as hampering their personal needs/wants. And both are completely valid viewpoints.”
Constant in the Darkness has started the adoption process again, and it feels different this time around. There are a lot of people’s feelings to consider beyond the usual three that come whenever you add to your family and already have one child. She writes, “So once again, we’re wide open to what life is ready to throw at us. It’s kind of scary. It’s kind of exciting. I’m trying not to think about it too much, really.” Great post about how it is different the second time around.
A Woman of My Age has a post about watching her child ride a bicycle for the first time. It’s a post about needing breathing space AND not wanting your child to grow up too quickly at the same time. I think it will resonate with a lot of people.
Lastly, Muddy Boots and Diamonds has a post about Climb Out of the Darkness, an awareness campaign for perinatal mood disorders. I love the symbolism of an upward climb paired with coming forward to talk about something difficult. A beautiful post.
The roundup to the Roundup: I’m not a fan of sunscreen application. Happy 4th of July! Your weekly backup nudge. 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 27th and July 4th) 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.
19 comments
I agree completely about sunscreen. My hope is that one day there is a sunscreen pill you can take, maybe 20 minutes before going outside.
They have stick sunscreen now, similar to a deodorant tube. Maybe that would be less goopy?
I hate sunscreen too, but we have the type of skin that does require it. I spent all of last Saturday outside under the shade of a tree…or so I thought, until I went inside and realized my chest was all burned. Sigh… Oh well, the kid went to the pool multiple times and is still pale as can be, so that’s something. Also, I hate sunscreen because I can never be sure, until sunburn, that I got all the spots. There is nothing more attractive than a swipey sunburn!
We never go to watch fireworks (don’t like crowds nd I find small town displays worrisome. I prefer a computer-driven show from a barge to a volunteer fireman running around with a flare.) but my husband buys more elaborate items every year. How that differs from a volunteer fireman with a flare, I don’t know.
Oh, and Happy Independence Day!
Wow! I wasn’t expecting to see a blog post of mine on the round up! Thank you 🙂
I also hate sunscreen. I’m horrible at remembering to put it on. I’m trying to be better, especially about putting it on my kids. Happy 4th!
I am a pasty pale redhead with awful skin allergies including a photosensitivity. So it’s both necessary and irritating. I often wish I had a booth, like when people get spray tanned. Or that a handsome man followed me around to put on more and had a plethora of organic, paraben free options. A girl can dream.
Sunscreen rubber-onner despiser here, too. Even bigger skin cancer despiser, as well.
I hate sunscreen too, especially the spray ones. They are so awful to breathe in. I don’t want to touch it and I get sick from the smell. I can’t go without though and have tried almost everything out of desperation. Neutrogenia has a sunscreen “deodorant like” stick SPF 70 that I’ve been able to tolerate. It’s not as great for faces, but they have a SPF 70 face one that I goes on and feels more like moisterizer that I’ve been able to live with.
I am a huge fan of rash guards. 🙂 I’m going out swimming a lot more now that I no longer have to get sunscreen on my back.
I second the stick sunscreen. I use a kids sunscreen and the stick works perfectly well on my daughter’s face – easier to apply and less greasy.
Sunscreen is a big issue down here in Australia and NZ, with the depletion of the ozone layer and high rates. Doesn’t help to have pale Celtic skin. My father, who was a farmer, died of metastasised skin cancer. I have his pale skin, and I’m paranoid. Even when I get all my moles and freckles checked, I’m still paranoid that they missed something! I had some bad burns in my teen years, when the risk was less well known, but these days I am exceedlingly careful with it. My favourite sunscreens are clear spray-ons, and so easier to rub in. I always shake my head in wonder when I’m in Europe and see people rubbing in oil and basking in the sun, turning leathery brown. I beat myself up terribly if I get burned, and last year I was annoyed to find that – despite being pretty careful – I developed a slight tan over four months in Europe and the Middle East. Sigh. Oh, and a hat is essential. I probably have a Vitamin D deficiency as a result!
However, after all that, I heard just in the last few weeks that maybe sunscreens don’t totally protect against UV rays that cause skin cancer. (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/278242.php) So covering up may actually be better. Or at least needs to be done as well. That’s easier as I get older.
PS. I loved this post by Mrs Spit about whether she deserved her infertility – and her conclusion “how you can know a thing to be totally true and still get caught up in an entirely different melody line.”
http://mrsspit.ca/?p=5037
I’ve used the new Neutrogenia face sunscreen that feels more like face lotion and love it. I’m a pale redhead, so I’ve learned the art of sunscreen application. I like Aveeno, as well. If going to the beach, I start with lotion and then switch to spray for reapplying and it seems to help with the sand. Another thing I try to do is put sunscreen on before my bathing suit and then no worries for missing spots. One nice thing about living in Florida is that you can buy regular lotion with sunscreen. It does not replace sunscreen by any means, but it does seem to help with the daily exposure going in and out of places or running errands in the car on a typical day. And I’m with Mali on feeling guilty if I do start to develop a tan (tan for me).
Oh Mel, thank you! You are really too sweet. It’s nice to know we have a group of like-minded peeps who totally get how up and down the road to babies is!
And sunscreen – it’s so time consuming and annoying! But really the lesser of the two evils I guess, so we grin and bear it.
Thanks for the shoutout!
I’m a fan of beach umbrellas!
I don’t like applying sunscreen, but I like sunburn less. That said, I discovered a uv protective hat in japan that I really love, so that’s my new solution.
It’s interesting to hear people’s views on the child rearing process.
My fave this week is not a fertility blog, but it is about emotional recovery http://moodscope.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/stuck.html
I’m totally with you on the sun screen. It keeps me inside a lot. However I really need to get better at it as I’m way to fair skinned and have had way too many bad sun burns to keep risking more. The worst for me is a day that isn’t super warm but is sunny. I often forget the sunscreen and end up getting burned. Again.
I will also say I love watching fireworks, the big professionally done ones but very strongly dislike all the stuff the average individual can go buy and play with at home. I also don’t love 4th of July. Something about a holiday that combines alcohol and explosive objects just doesn’t thrill me.
I don’t know if it’s too late to include this in tomorrow’s second helpings but this post is a must read:
http://thecornfedfeminist.blogspot.com/2014/07/pro-choice-postpartum.html?m=1