Category — Friday Blog Roundup

If August 2023 was a month that I dreaded for years, May 2024 is a month I’ve looked forward to for… well… not years. But certainly months. Pretty much since August 2023.

This year has felt like one of those confidence courses they string up in trees where you wear a harness and walk across a wobbly log suspended twenty feet about the ground. I’m not a fan (you’ve probably guessed) of confidence courses, though there is something about that moment when you step off the wobbly log onto the stable tree platform, and your whole body shakes as the adrenaline drains and you think, “I did it. I actually did it.”

Unlike a confidence course, I will need to do it again. When you don’t like something, it doesn’t really help to think about how you got through it last time. But August 2024 feels far enough away right now that I’m just going to enjoy trying to shove their belongings into a storage unit and jumping into the car, celebrating the start of summer. Soon soon.

*******

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:

• “Well Received” (Infertile Phoenix)
• “The Invisible Load” (The Road Less Travelled)
• “The Brambles” (Stirrup Queens) – thanks, Jess!

Okay, now my choices this week.

Grumpy Rumblings has a thought-provoking (and purposefully controversial) question: “Do people really love it when bad things happen to people and hate it when good things happen to people?” An interesting conversation is happening in the comment section (just like the old days!), so jump in.

Lastly, Finding a Different Path is celebrating her birthday (happy birthday!), and she muses on being close to “old enough that the x-ray technicians don’t ask if I could be pregnant.” [Side note: Do not get me started on getting charged for a pregnancy test pre-MRI EVEN THOUGH I COULDN’T BE PREGNANT. Grrr…] Here’s to celebrating (instead of dreading) growing older.

The roundup to the Roundup: It’s finally May 2024! 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 April 26 – May 3) 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.

It is once again National Infertility Awareness Week, or NIAW, and the theme this year is Leave Your Mark. While I write and talk about infertility all the time, I find it hard to fit my feelings into a prompt.

I’m glad NIAW exists, but sometimes I struggle with knowing how to participate. I didn’t want the week to pass without acknowledging it.

*******

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.

*******

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.

Infertile Phoenix writes about assumptions. She explains, “It’s not the small, individual comments that hurt or even annoy me anymore, not at this stage of my healing. It’s the overall onslaught of all of them. It’s all of the underlying assumptions.” It gives her insight into how much we need to step back and remember what we don’t know.

Lastly, Slaying, Blogging, Whatever… has a post on her child’s 16th birthday (happy birthday!). It’s an acknowledgment of how hard it can be to reach these days, and a reminder to her daughter that she is never alone. This touched my heart: “The wonder of her still amazes me and I am continually surprised by her thoughtfulness, kindness, humor and strength. I only hope she can eventually understand this in herself.”

The roundup to the Roundup: It’s NIAW. 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 April 19 – 26) 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.

We filled up on pizza and pasta this week, which feels like a cheat. We’re essentially trying to make ourselves sick of things so we won’t miss them when we can’t eat them during Pesach. Which feels like a loophole, right? It’s like if you gorged on chocolate until you felt queasy at the sight of it and then said, “I’m giving up chocolate for Lent.”

I may be overthinking this.

In any case, I only have a few days left with bread, so that’s all I’m eating until the first seder starts on Monday.

*******

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.

*******

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.

A Separate Life made me think deeply about autumn. Or, really, think deeply about spring because she is coming out of the season we’re entering. She writes, “It’s the season when we look at projects we wanted to do, and see them unfinished, or worse, even unstarted!” Reading this before summer begins (for me) means that I can go in with open eyes, trying to remember this valuable lesson from autumn, which sounds lovely in New Zealand.

Lastly, Bereaved and Blessed has a post on Molly’s 16th birthday/anniversary of her death. She explains the benefit of re-reading these old posts and remembering what she has been through. “When navigating difficult and uncertain times, I often think I’ve never felt like this before, it is so hard. However, in reality every age and stage of life is filled with challenges that can feel almost insurmountable while we are living through them.” Again, a bittersweet life lesson that I’m grateful she has put back into my head with this reminder.

The roundup to the Roundup: Trying to make myself not miss pasta. 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 April 12 – 19) 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.

Beorn didn’t like anything about the eclipse. He didn’t even get that excited when I bought him blueberries and told him they were eclipse berries (because they look like the moon in front of the sun), and he usually loves blueberries. I brought his playpen outside so he could enjoy the event, but he decided that he wanted to go back inside after about five minutes, and I didn’t let him see the sun because he was not going to keep those glasses on his little piggie face.

It’s hard to be a little guinea pig during a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Josh and I gave the eclipse two thumbs up. 5 stars. We only had 87% coverage, but it was still very cool.

*******

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.

*******

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:

• “Separate Waiting Rooms” (Stirrup Queens) – thank you, Jess!
• “Knowing I Won’t Have Kids” (Infertile Phoenix)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Finding a Different Path writes about her total eclipse of the clouds. She explains: “It was really cool, but it was also an exercise in practicing being appreciative in the face of disappointments (which so many of us are REALLY good at, unfortunately).” I think that is a very profound lesson from the eclipse, especially because the event comes with a lot of anticipation AND many things (e.g., weather) outside a person’s control. And it still sounds like a cool experience in the totality zone, clouds and all.

Lastly, Infertile Phoenix writes about what it means to now have the knowledge that she will not have children. I especially love these lines: “Knowing I am not going to have children is easier than trying to get pregnant. Living my life knowing that I won’t have kids is easier than coping with the initial years after the realization.” It’s a wonderful post about life after knowing.

The roundup to the Roundup: Beorn’s not-so-loving-the-eclipse Eclipse. 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 April 5 – 12) 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.

I went from making no plans to see the eclipse — despite everyone I know having solid plans to see the eclipse, so it wasn’t as if it wasn’t on my radar — to asking Josh if he could come home from work early because we really need to see this eclipse. This meant digging through the drawers to find our old eclipse glasses from 2017 and writing frantic texts to the kids about how they need to procure new eclipse glasses.

Ha — though with the 2017 eclipse, I talked about having seven years to do things better. Forgot that memo until this week.

*******

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.

*******

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.

Finding a Different Path writes about separate waiting rooms because it really is the best idea in the world. (Though, side note, I got tea on my computer for laughing during this line: “I guess because I didn’t ‘fess up to shaving my bellybutton? WTF.” If that doesn’t get you to click over, I don’t know what will.) She unpacks many different offices and finally ends up somewhere good. But it highlights what offices and doctors need to do differently and what they get right.

Lastly, A Blank New Page talks about a conversation with a 93-year-old woman who asks if she has children. The woman also did not have children and shares her feelings about it. She writes, “How calmly she asked me this question back then. How calm her own comment on it was. And how liberating it felt for me, how good, how accepted, understood and yes – how calm I felt.” Love this.

The roundup to the Roundup: Eclipse! 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 29 – April 5) 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.