678th Friday Blog Roundup

I was really proud of myself this week, and since no one in my family is being effusive enough in their praise, I’m turning this over to the Internet.

I had a very clever idea, if I do say so myself, for a book display in the local library.  I asked Josh to tell the librarian my brilliant idea, but he suggested that I go there myself and TALK TO THE LIBRARIAN.  That needs to be in all caps because it is so completely scary that it’s as if he asked me to have a threesome with the clown from It.

I am not good at having conversations with strangers.

But I put on my big girl panties and marched (well, drove) myself to the library, bringing the twins with me for moral support.  I found the librarian and started telling her my plan (which sounded so much better before I had to describe it to someone), and at first she was nodding, confused, but by the end, she was nodding AND smiling AND agreed that my idea was clever.  (If you want to know, it involves tying Korean cookbooks to a play about Korean cooking… it’s a long story.  Trust me, it was clever.)  She is considering it, and promised that she would let us know if she decided to do it.

And then, yes, I am going to take a picture of the book display because I consider it more a paper monument to my bravery.

I spoke to a stranger, and I lived to tell the tale.  My nervous system was only buzzing for… oh… three hours afterward.  A win!

P.S. This is the part where you say, “Wow, Melissa, that was really brave.  That sounds just as scary as that video of the snake swimming around with the decapitated fish head.”

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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:

• “#MicroblogMondays: Heinz 57” (The Road Less Travelled)
• “How Time Moves Differently When You Don’t Have Children” (Life Without Baby)
• “Violet” (Travelcraft Journal)
• “Hiding Out” (Searching for Our Silver Lining)
• “Grieving My Dog & Questioning Fertility Clinics” (Infertile Phoenix)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Countingpinklines has a post about a lesson learned from infertility.  She begins musing on the acceptance you get from other people in the community who just get it (vs. stuff she was reading on STFU, Parents) and she writes, “I’d like to think that this is one positive thing that I’ve gotten from the last several years – there is not really one sole path to happiness or fulfillment. That and life throws a lot of stuff at you and sometimes all you can do is just grit your teeth and survive.”  Love it.

Unpregnant Chicken is celebrating her book launch; a children’s book explaining assisted conception.  That sounded very clinical, so I’ll let her speak instead: “Lucas wonders what it takes to make a baby. Mommy tells him that babies are made with a sperm and an egg but that some babies, like him, take extra. But what does it mean to be ‘extra’? This question launches Lucas into a day full of discovery.”  It sounds (and looks) very cute AND helpful.

The OCD Infertile had a bleeding scare, that luckily turns out to be okay, but I love the way she describes her state of pregnancy after infertility: “I longed to be a part of this ‘pregnant’ club but now that I am here I still don’t feel like I fit in because of the baggage I carry in with me. Like the Campetts moving to Beverly Hills. Here I come, with my rusted truck and rocking chair on the roof and lots of non-designer labeled baggage filled with all of my pain, fear, and past heartbreak.”  This is it — she captures it perfectly.

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ writes about the New Zealand Prime Minister, who didn’t have children but has since announced her pregnancy.  I love this post for her response at the end.  Her SIL is complaining that the PM kept her pregnancy a secret during the election, and Mali responds: “Well, isn’t it good that you’re not a New Zealander!”  It may need to be tweaked when I encounter whining in the future from those outside a community, but I’m totally borrowing a version of that.

The roundup to the Roundup: Super brave, right?  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 January 19th and 26th) 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.