859th Friday Blog Roundup

This is the final weekend before the twins return to school for the first time in 18 months. It’s with a lot of mixed emotions. They are excited to see friends, they are nervous about the workload, and they are terrified about how the pandemic stuff will play out.

Actually, all of us are terrified about the pandemic stuff. (Their friends are awesome, and the workload is what it is.) It feels like there is a lot of stuff still up in the air, so it’s a little nerve-wracking to send them to the building when we’re told they’re still working on a mask-off-lunch plan. We are lucky that our area has a high vaccination rate and requires masks, but I still want to know how they’re going to stop the spread if everyone is eating indoors.

It’s kind of amazing how school-from-home now feels normal and school-out-of-the-home feels really strange. I will cry on Monday because I always cry on the first day of school. (And sometimes on the second, but I usually pull my shit together by the third.) But I’m glad they’re getting back together with friends and teachers. Hoping it’s a good year.

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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:

• “Why Is Big Media Asking Mothers to Speak for Childless Women?” (Yael Wolfe via Medium)
• “Is Taboo the Right Word Any More?” (The Uterus Monologues)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Family Building With a Twist returns with a bittersweet update post (To be fair, she warns you with the title.) about a very hard year; navigating the pandemic and losing her husband. She writes: “I try really, really hard to keep it all together, but I have also learned to let myself be vulnerable and to be seen as vulnerable.” Even if you see a person daily on Facebook, there is something different about a blog post. I’m glad she came back to talk.

Finding a Different Path has a book recommendation for anyone feeling burnout. Instead of describing the book, she pulls out some great quotes and allows the book to do the speaking. Such a great idea.

Lastly, I have The Uterus Monologue’s post about miscarriage for this week. I agree—speaking about miscarriage openly has always only been a first step. The subject is somewhere between hidden and commonplace; but her bigger question remains: “Perhaps what we need to ask ourselves isn’t so much why we aren’t talking about miscarriage, but why we aren’t listening.” Conversation has always been a place to establish this is a problem. Now we need to talk about what we’re going to do about it via science and policy.

The roundup to the Roundup: Back to school. 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 August 20 – August 27) 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.