637th Friday Blog Roundup

Josh and I came to the realization this week that we have a shared hatred of wrapping things.  It’s Purim this weekend, so we had to wrap all of our mishloach manot baskets.  This activity takes about five to six hours; longer if I don’t do some pre-wrapping stuff like put all the chocolates in boxes.

We did this last night, and we both dreaded it all week.  I asked the kids in the morning if they wanted to help me for a few hours after school, and when I left the room, I heard Josh tell them, “The more you help, the less I have to do.”  (Spoiler alert: They didn’t want to help.)  Josh and I had a phone call midway through the day where we both whined about how much we hate wrapping things.  And then later we dragged our asses to the bleached-down kitchen and wrapped for many many many mind-numbing hours.

I don’t know why wrapping annoys us as much as it does.  I would rather wash an endless supply of dishes than wrap stuff.  I would rather clean toilets than wrap stuff.  I would rather listen to Josh’s music than wrap stuff.  That last one was a hard one, but yeah, I think I would rather listen to Josh’s music than cut cellophane.

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We got Yayoi Kusama tickets!  Hopefully I’ll have some pictures/stories about long lines to throw up next week.

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Stop procrastinating.  Go make your backups.  Don’t have regrets.

Seriously.  Stop what you’re doing for a moment.  It will take you fifteen minutes, tops.  But you will have peace of mind for days and days.  It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

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:

• “‘Emotional Labour’ and Childless Women” (The Road Less Travelled)
• “Competitiveness in Fertility and Adoption” (My Path to Mommyhood)

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Empress and the Fool has a beautiful post to her two unborn daughters, a pregnancy coming after a long road of infertility and loss.  I’ll admit it: I cried reading it.  It’s not only a beautiful letter, but I read it knowing the history shared on the blog.  Plus this: “Your father and I will be behind you for all the broken bones and broken hearts to remind you: yes you can! The future is female.”

In Quest of a Binky Moongee has a post about her grandmother’s death.  Infertility robs us of the big things, but sometimes it is the small things that are the most hurtful splinters in our hearts.  Her surrogate is finally pregnant after so many years of family building, and she explains, “If we had been able to get pregnant earlier, then my grandma would have had a chance to meet our child(ren) or to have the joy of knowing their existence.  This lost opportunity highlights how unfair this journey could be.”  Go over and give her a hug.

So Dear and Yet So Far is back with an update post.  She explains: “Way back before we started trying to conceive, when one of my nieces or nephews was little, a toddler, no more that a year or 18 months, they looked around and found  who they were looking for: ‘Mommy!’ they exclaimed. Mommy! and my uterus ached and my chest clenched. I felt it. I wanted it. I knew.”  It is a beautiful piece about looking at Plan B or C; about life after it goes off-track and a new course has to be set.

Lastly, Different Shores has a post about Sarah Silverman and the study that said people feel moral outrage towards those who don’t have children.  She writes, “Why can’t our culture just respect the fact that some people can’t have children and some people just don’t want children, for whatever reason? Not to mention the people that shouldn’t have children.”  It’s an excellent question; one that ties into a larger umbrella question: Why do people care about things that other people do when those things don’t affect them?

The roundup to the Roundup: We hate wrapping things.  Seeing Yayoi Kusama’s exhibit.  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 March 3rd and 10th) 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.