875th Friday Blog Roundup
If I was a clever person, I would write a blog-focused version of Twas the Night Before Christmas, but I’m not clever, and I would need to Google for the original words to that poem.
So instead I’ll tell you that I hope you have a wonderful holiday if you’re celebrating tonight. And if not, we’re marking the night with Jólabókaflóðið, the Icelandic book flood. So there are at least books to celebrate.
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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 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. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:
- None… sniff.
Okay, now my choices this week.
The Road Less Travelled has made it home for the holidays. She didn’t know if she’d be able to go (and there was some chaos with uploading the vaccine cards), but she got there. I really appreciate these posts — not just to know how people are celebrating the holidays but because they become a time capsule of the experience. Glad she gets to celebrate with her family.
FinallyMyLinesNow continues the story of her child’s birth with more details about her hysterectomy. She writes, “So that whole uterus thing? Yeah. It’s gone. I’m not really in a coherent place when it comes to my feelings on the subject. I’m angry and sad and guilty.” It happened a few weeks after the birth, and she asks: “How do you grieve losing something you no longer needed, but still deeply wanted?” No good answers, but abiding with her.
Lastly, Baby With a Twist continues to process her grief. She ties together her personal loss to the season: “In some ways, there is an inherent loneliness built into this time of the year that our celebrations are trying to stave off. Safety in numbers at the very least. But there is a part of me that has always been attracted to the darkness and that feeling of being alone (not that I want to be alone).” A moving thought and a lot of love sent out into the universe to her and anyone else grieving right now.
The roundup to the Roundup: Have a wonderful holiday (if you celebrate). 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 December 17 – December 24) 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.
4 comments
I love the thoughts in Sarah’s post about the classic holiday movie, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Festive and relevant! https://infertilityhonesty.com/2021/12/22/why-i-love-rudolph/
Oooh, book flood! I think I unofficially do that all the time, and Bryce totally spoiled me with books this Christmas. The eating chocolate in bed part skeeves me, though. I have to have clean teeth in bed (also because I wear an acrylic nightguard to keep me from breaking all my teeth in the night).
I thought the framing of Infertile Phoenix’s post about leaving her job was beautiful — it’s a tough thing to go through but the whole idea of not compromising yourself is a message well worth reading: https://infertilephoenix.blogspot.com/2021/12/know-your-worth.html
I also loved Mali’s post about her 20 year anniversary of her first pregnancy and loss, because it puts out there that you can remember and feel that loss and it doesn’t mean you aren’t doing well with healing. https://nokiddinginnz.blogspot.com/2021/12/twenty-years.html
Last, your post about Mild Cases and the whole concept of shared humanity. I HATE when people are like, “well, it’s a matter of when not if you get COVID, so just accept that.” Why is that something we should accept? All the reasons you write about really hit home. https://www.stirrup-queens.com/2021/12/mild-cases/
I love the book flood idea! I’m a bit late for this, but thanks to Jess for noting my 20 year post. (I’m so old! lol)
Belated thank you for the shoutout! 🙂 I’ve heard about the Icelandic tradition before (probably though you!), and I love it! I was pretty busy over Christmas — my time is not always my own when I’m with my parents — but I did manage to finish two books while I was there and start a third on the plane trip home. 🙂