Random header image... Refresh for more!

829th Friday Blog Roundup

I cried watching the inauguration. My cousin described it as the release of a four-year body clench, and I think that’s exactly how this has felt. Four years of harm after harm after harm—real harm, children in cages harm, people losing basic human rights harm. So I cried with relief that we got to this moment. That we’re in the movement forward vs. waiting for it.

The twins piled onto the bed with us to watch, and they indulged me by recreating a photo I took during Obama’s inauguration. I put the two images side by side—the very serious preschoolers vs the trying-not-to-laugh high schoolers. We ate chocolate that my sister sent. We clapped. We texted with friends.

It was a good day.

Though I had nightmares every night during the first half of the week. I’m exhausted.

*******

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.

*******

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:

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Road Less Travelled points out an awful sentiment about people without children, where the worth of a person’s life is determined by whether or not they’re parenting. She writes, “Sometimes I feel like a sitting duck as a childless woman.” It’s scary.

An Engineer Becomes a Mom about an epiphany at work: “I’m introducing transformation to people who don’t want it.” Knowing that, she pauses to adjust and recalibrate, especially in the face of external stress. Change is hard and it comes slowly. Sometimes the best thing is to focus on that first step vs. knowing where that first step will lead.

Lastly, My Path to Mommyhood hit 800 posts and talks about renaming her blog. “I think this is the year I update my blog, or change it up to a new one. I hate change, but ‘My Path to Mommyhood’ is just not authentic to my experience anymore. I have been officially off that path for over three years, and it’s time to name it something different, or start something new.” It’s hard AND exciting to change a blog name. I’m looking forward to seeing what it becomes.

The roundup to the Roundup: The future is finally here. 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 Jan 15 – 22) 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.

7 comments

1 a { 01.22.21 at 8:42 am }

I don’t even worry about the bad news coming out now. No coronavirus plan? They’ll handle it! Senate turmoil? It’ll get figured out! Still can’t stand McConnell though. I know I’ll be disappointed eventually, but not this week.

2 Phoenix { 01.22.21 at 1:17 pm }

I have to nominate your post from Microblog Monday. I loved reading about the seven types of rest. https://www.stirrup-queens.com/2021/01/microblog-monday-334-not-all-rest-is-the-same/

3 Sharon { 01.22.21 at 2:04 pm }

Regarding the post about a woman’s worth being dependent upon whether or not she is a parent. . . sadly, this is very true in our society. It’s also true that if a woman is ONLY a mother (i.e., does not also have a paying career), she is undervalued.

Women just can’t win in our society, it seems.

4 Sharon { 01.22.21 at 2:06 pm }

Ooh, forgot to say: Wednesday was a good day for me, too. I could not persuade my sons to watch the (boring-according-to-them) inauguration but I was definitely in high spirits myself and feel such relief at not waiting for the other shoe to drop all the time.

5 loribeth { 01.22.21 at 3:00 pm }

Thank you for highlighting my post, Mel! There’s been a lot of talk on the childless blogs & forums I hang out on about how the pandemic has exacerbated the pronatalism that’s already so prevalent in our society. But I found this series of tweets (as well as the post I wrote that preceded this one) highly disturbing. 🙁

For second helpings, I just read & loved this post by Infertile Phoenix, about making your own needs a priority:

https://infertilephoenix.blogspot.com/2021/01/my-old-life.html

6 Working mom of 2 { 01.22.21 at 11:32 pm }

Yes. I had the inauguration streaming on my phone as I worked. My 4th grader got to watch President Biden (oh how good that sounds) speak during distance learning. And we all watched the evening celebration (we missed the beginning). I was excited to see Jon Bon Jovi cover Here Comes The Sun, couldn’t be more apt. I’m loving watching Fauci looking so happy and hearing Biden’s plans. Things are still bad but now there’s hope they will get better.

7 Mali { 01.23.21 at 5:43 pm }

I’m not surprised you shed some tears watching the inauguration. I did too, from the other side of the world! I’m so glad it all went smoothly. And with such dignity and grace and compassion.

(c) 2006 Melissa S. Ford
The contents of this website are protected by applicable copyright laws. All rights are reserved by the author