Category — Friday Blog Roundup

I started logging my meals again.  Sigh.  I lost a decent amount of weight a few years ago and maintained it by writing down everything I ate.  I wasn’t precise about it; I didn’t keep track of every stray crumb.  But I measured out my portions and when I hit my caloric budget for the day, I put down the fork.  I’m a rules follower.

I got more and more lax about writing stuff down and measuring things out, and over the years, the weight has crept back on.  Not all of it but maybe half of it.  And I can feel it.  I remember how I felt when I wasn’t carrying this extra weight, and I know how I feel now.  So it’s back to writing everything down.

It is amazing how small amounts of food contain so many calories.

I don’t want to do anything unsustainable since weight creeps back on once you stop doing the unsustainable thing.  But I also don’t know any other way to hold myself accountable.  To set some limits.  To remind myself that I really don’t need that cookie.

*******

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. (Well, two weeks ago.)  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Grateful” (Searching for Our Silver Lining)
• “How to Limit Looking at Your Phone” (Stirrup Queens) — thanks, Ana!
• “7 New Year’s Resolutions for the Fertility Challenged” (Recombine)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Notes from the Ninth Circle has a post about trying to connect with other people and falling short.  She captures that mood so well, when you want to talk to someone and yet no one feels right.  She explains her lack of impulse to reach out comes from a belief that,  “I don’t have to risk bothering anyone, nor do I have to find other things to talk about to avoid bothering them with what’s really upsetting me.”  And it circles back to needing your blog.  It’s a great post.

Twangy Pearl the Elastic Girl has a post about waiting to hear the thoughts of a birth mother.  The words feel like pacing, like waiting, like double checking that everything is sort of in place in case the call comes.  Again, I think she captured a moment so well.

Anabegins has a totally fascinating post about frugality.  She writes: “The people spending $400/month to feed their family may have some mad skillz (and probably a lot of time to coupon/shop around), but they are not inherently better people than the ones spending $1200.”  I like her whole argument about the level in which we value things.  It’s not only an interesting post, but there is a good conversation taking place in the comment section.

Lastly, Persnickety Chickadee has a post about the habits of unhappy people.  I looked down the list and realized I did a few of these things, especially the one that she highlighted: waiting for the future.  It’s an interesting idea: that you could change your happiness level by remaining in the same situation but changing the way you view it.  Not sure, but it’s food for thought.

The roundup to the Roundup: Tracking what I eat.  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 8th and 15th) 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.

When Page, Stages, and Rages wrote to let me know that the Hamilton lottery would be going digital for a few months, I ran around the room in excitement. Until I read this tweet:

Due to over 50K unique entries, @BroadwayDirect‘s lottery site has fully crashed. As a result, we cannot award any #Ham4Ham winners tonight.

— Hamilton (@HamiltonMusical) January 5, 2016

Um… 50,000 entries? I guess we’re back to having zero chance.

I am not smitten with Hamilton, but the ChickieNob is obsessed. She loves American history. This is a great thing because I know next to nothing about American history, and so without having to do any work, I now have a satellite brain that knows all the facts and can spit them out at the appropriate moment when asked. I have always called the ChickieNob the “brain for my brain” because she is this wonderful sponge that remembers everything. And since I take her everywhere with me, it’s like carting around a little extra brain that I can use as external storage.

So she is obsessed with Hamilton, which means that I am obsessed with trying to get her to the play. Though this is looking less and less likely. Sniff.

*******

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. (Well, two weeks ago.)  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Are You Ready?” (Tales of a 30 Year Old Nothing)
• “Not a Creature Was Stirring” (Searching For Our Silver Lining)
• “Kohl’s Adoption Video Brings Out the Either/Or Brigade” (Lavender Luz)

Okay, now my choices this week.

A lot of people talk about what they’re reading, but I haven’t seen as many posts talk about how they’re squeezing reading into a day.  So I loved Anabegins post about where and when she is reading.  If nothing else, it will make you realize that everyone has times in life where they don’t get a page read and other times when they devour books.  If nothing else, she has bumped Max Barry’s Lexicon towards the top of my to-read list.

Non Sequitur Chica leaves her husband to spread news about her pregnancy.  And what happens is… well… a lot of confusion.  It’s a very funny post.

Something Remarkable has a post about setting goals for the new year.  Without a large goal in front of her, she writes, “Nothing is urgent, which makes everything feel urgent.”  What happens when you enter the happily ever after?  I like her idea of keeping the goals small rather than setting them for a year, especially because she’s right: how do you know what life will look like next fall?  This post is a nice take on grand resolutions, and how at some points in life, smaller goals work better than larger ones.

Lastly, please hold Torthúil in your thoughts. Her father died this week, and she memorializes the moment with an achingly beautiful post about loss and love and what life looks like when boiled down to its core elements.

The roundup to the Roundup: My brain for my brain is never going to get to see Hamilton.  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 1st and 8th) 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’s Christmas day.  I hope if you’re celebrating that you’re having a wonderful time with all the festivities.  And if you’re not celebrating, that you’re having a wonderful time having a day off.  And if you don’t have a day off, that you’re at least getting a good piece of chocolate into your body.  And if you hate chocolate… well… a particularly satisfying carrot?

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This post has zero spoilers for The Force Awakens.

I got to see it on Wednesday. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. I would rank it third for Star Wars films (Empire is 1st, New Hope is 2nd, and Force Awakens is 3rd).

I cried four times — big, gasping, shaking crying jags that freaked out the elderly woman next to me. I’m happy to tell you where if you want to know. I just don’t want to post it here and possibly ruin anything for anyone.

But the best part for me was seeing it with my dad. I saw Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi with him in the theater, so this was our third Star Wars movie together.

Now the hard part: the ChickieNob doesn’t know if she wants to be Leia or Rey for Purim this year. Decisions decisions.

*******

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:

• “Being Up to the Task” (A+ Effort)

Okay, now my choices this week.

We’ll kick it off with the best Christmas post I read this week.  A Half Baked Life has a beautiful post about being okay with the darkness and even finding the benefit to sitting with the unknowns that creep out when we’re without light.  I loved this line: “It was like coming home, almost, to people who didn’t judge me for leaving.”  We should all find spaces like that in our lives.

Infertile Fantasies donated her embryos, and the recipient is now pregnant.  This is a gorgeous post about the ambivalence she feels, swinging between extreme gratitude that the embryos burrowed in and implanted and the grief in knowing the embryos burrowed in and implanted.  I especially loved this thought: “Suddenly my heart was lighter, like it just then realised it didn’t have to go through it all that night, because it would in any case be going through it piece by piece each day.”

Today’s the Day has a post about her word of the year.  I love this post because while I see lots of posts in January about a person’s word of the year, I rarely see posts in December that reflect on how the word served them over the 12 months.  So it was nice to hear how the word kept her company, goaded her along, or sometimes made her feel guilty over the course of a year.

Lastly, One Step at a Time has a post about a negative right before Christmas.  Days of nausea convince her that she’s pregnant, but after she gets the beta results, she writes, “I just could not believe it. I was sad, but I was also angry about all the nausea I was having. I was fine with it if it meant I was pregnant but now it just seemed like a cruel joke.”  It’s a post about being grateful for what you have and missing what you don’t at the same time.

The roundup to the Roundup: Merry Christmas.  Happy Force Awakens.  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 18th and 25th) 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.

A police officer in our town was killed in the line of duty and his funeral was this week.  They shut down the roads for a few hours to accommodate the hundreds of people who had to move between the church and the cemetery.  I drove the route to meet a friend a little before the shut down, but people were already gathering by the side of the road to visually support the family, holding American flags.  Two schools lined the route, children with their hands over their heart as the cars drove by.

I didn’t personally know this police officer, but you couldn’t help but cry seeing the people waiting to pay their respects.  Here was an individual who was killed trying to make the roads safer; who was attempting to take someone off the road who had the potential to kill other citizens.  How can you say “thank you” for something like that?  You can’t.  You can only line the route with your hand over you heart.

I sat with my friend inside the closure and watched the cars go by for an hour and a half and sent good thoughts to his family.

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Thank you for all of your good wishes about the book.  While I love each book I write for different reasons, this one is extra special to me because it’s a passion project.  It’s something that 9-year-old Melissa would have found unfathomable, the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her.  I sort of wish I could go back to grade school and blow that girl’s mind.  I not only taught myself how to create interactive fiction — my favourite hobby and a huge part of my life — but I got to write a book about it.  That little girl playing Zork would have never believed it.

I hold it up to the kids and their friends as a “You never know what will happen.  Sometimes the most inconceivable plans come true, even when you start them without knowing how to even take the first step” moment.

And by the way, Infertile Girl got all 15 points first (as far as I know) with just a little nudge.  Go Infertile Girl!

*******

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:

• “The Lonely Island” (Breathe Gently)
• “Selling Hope” (So I Was Minding My Own Business)

Okay, now my choices this week.

In Quest of a Binky Moongee has a heartbreaking and very truthful post after this last loss that should be passed along to everyone who cavalierly says, “Well, you can always do IVF.”  My heart broke when I got to this item in the list of Sadness is… “seeing that Christmas cards of friends’ children have replaced Kevin’s photo in the prime spot of the fridge.”  Sending a hug, even though she knows that in the future that she will be okay.

Wild and Precious Life has a post as she nears the one year anniversary of her loss.  She doesn’t know how she will get through the month (and please go leave her advice in her comment section), especially since it is scattered with so many difficult dates.  It is about seeing the memories racing toward you on the calendar, and having no ability to stop them or side step them.

Lastly, Anabegins has a post about happiness; what it is, how you know when you have it, and whether we should be so focused on trying to obtain it.  What I love about this post is that it’s permission to approach happiness as you wish to approach happiness.  That you can be happy overall while still dealing with the annoyances of life or even sadness.  I like this non-black-and-white view of happiness.

The roundup to the Roundup: Honouring the dead.  Thank you for the book cheers.  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 11th and 18th) 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 well-known that I have an unusual love of Maryland.  Like black-eyed susans trail after me in the air wherever I walk, and I named my bunny in Hay Day Dark Lord Baltimore (as a nod to Harry Potter and Maryland history at the same time).  Therefore, I was happy to see that Mental Floss covered 25 non-crabby facts about my state this week.  Okay, so some of them were crabby.  Is that really what people think of when they think of Maryland?  Crabs?

So did you know that our official state sport is jousting?  Which I guess makes sense since horses are everywhere around here, but I’ve only seen jousting once and it was in grade school.

Interesting: Mental Floss states that “Much to the chagrin of Maryland’s children, the anthem—all nine verses of it—is still part of the public school curriculum.” This is counter to our experience where I have complained that the twins have not had to learn the words to “Maryland, My Maryland,” whereas I did when I was their age.  And it sucked.  It sucked hardcore.

But I can still sing the song.  And snicker at all its vaguely sexual-sounding commentary on being part of the South including “Howard’s warlike thrust” and “She breathes! she burns! she’ll come! she’ll come!”

*******

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:

• “Walking with Fear” (Jane Rutner)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Waiting to Expand has a beautiful post about her heart remembering what her brain forgot.  She writes, “there was a sadness that hung over me like a winter fog, a sadness that ran deep and couldn’t be defined or explained.”  Please remember with her on the three year anniversary of her loss.

Non Sequitur Chica is in the office for an ultrasound today, but it was her post earlier in the week about this day that held my heart.  I love the mantra: “Today you are pregnant,” but moreover, the bolded advice that she gives herself in the middle of the post.  The thought is so simple, so perfect, it should probably be made into needlepoint and put in every RE’s office across the world.

Lastly, Mrs. Spit has a moving post on the 8th birthday of her son, Gabriel, who died soon after birth.  She admits that there are times when she needs to talk about him, and when she does, she tells the person that it will be a sad story.  This serves as a refrain through the post.  It is a sad story, but it is also a story about a mother and father and son and love.

The roundup to the Roundup: Did you know these facts about Maryland?  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 4th and 11th) 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.