Category — Friday Blog Roundup

I’m locking my door earlier this week when I see something brown near my hand.  I pull back and discover that it is an enormous cricket, hanging out above the door knob, just waiting to kill me.

Yes, the cricket was thinking murderous thoughts.

I looked up and down the street, but no one was outside.  So I did what any self-respecting 41-year-old woman would do.  I went and knocked on my neighbour’s door and asked her how she felt about crickets.  As in, could she save me from a murderous cricket.

I talked to her new baby while she went to my house and saved my life from a cricket who was pretty much plotting my demise while he clung to my door, dreaming up ways he would dismember my corpse.  My neighbour came back into her house holding a cricket in a tissue, claiming that my cricket must have hopped away because all that was there was this tiny, emaciated cricket.

Um… no.  That was the cricket.

The best part was that I kept telling her son that his mommy was a hero, and every time I said “hero,” he would give me this gummy smile like he totally knew his mother was a stone-cold-cricket-killing saviour.

I love my neighbour.  I love her with all my heart and soul.

*******

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:

• “Behind the Scenes” (Living in Bliss)
• “Intersecting Roads” (Torthúil)
• “Running” (Inconceivable!)

Okay, now my choices this week.

River Run Dry has a post about fall that stuck with me all week.  She writes, “I left my sunroof open a few days ago, when I parked at the pond for my swim. It was a short swim – only a half hour – but it was gorgeous and amazing and totally changed my mood. And when I got back, there was this little present waiting for me, right on the driver’s seat.”  Her post made me feel hopeful for each season.

Obsessivemom has a non-infertility post that I love about how our kids may seem grown up, but on the inside, they sometimes still want to be babied.  It was a lovely little reminder that I stored in my mind all week and took out whenever I panicked that the twins felt too mature, too independent.  They are still kids.

Waiting for Baby Bray talks about how the experience of infertility becomes something you cling to and think about when there is nothing else there to distract you.  She writes, “…sometimes it feels like it it is all you have.  All that defines you.  It’s not like we have pictures of our kiddies at dance recitals anyway.”  This post made me want to reach through the screen and give her a hug.

Lastly, Constant in the Darkness talks about how adoption is still a part of their lives, but it’s fading backwards into the rest of life as her child ages.  She explains, “I am finally coming to terms with the idea that there is way more to Moonbeam’s story than her adoption.”  It’s a great perspective on how living life adds to the story.

The roundup to the Roundup: My neighbour saved me from a cricket.  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 September 18th and September 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.

I’m not really ready to graduate from Hogwarts. I mean, overall, I’m not a big fan of change. I don’t mind something becoming more, but I’m not really into things becoming different. So Rowling announcing that Pottermore will be completely overhauled and that Hogwarts is essentially disappearing makes me somewhat depressed.

I spent a lot of time taking screenshots of my work.

Like all those potions I made and hoarded.  And my house points.  And my duels.

I took my Pottermore very very seriously.

Last week, I had a night to myself while Josh worked.  I went on Pottermore to say goodbye, but it sort of felt like the last days of college, when you knew you were going to have to leave soon so what was the point in doing anything more?  I spent a little time looking at my virtual books and some scenes.

And then I closed it down to wait for the site to revamp itself like a phoenix.

Oh Fawkes, I’m not really good with phoenixes, either.

*******

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:

• “Pain in Progress (Part Two)” (Infertilityhonesty)
• “Microblog Mondays: Back Alleys” (Searching for Our Silver Lining)
• “On Othering. Dismissing People as Being Less Human Than We Are” (Carly Findlay)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Um… let’s see how well this goes.  I want to highlight two posts, both about Kim Cattrall’s comments about… well… sort of about mothers.

Misconceptions About Conception had the first personal blog post I read on the topic, so it opened the discussion for me.  She comes at it from the idea that words have meaning, and whether it’s okay to apply them to a different definition.

The Road Less Travelled also talks about the feelings that certain words evoke as well as understanding Cattrall without really agreeing with her completely.

Both are thought-provoking posts, and I think Cattrall’s comments open up an interesting discussion on maternal instincts and mothering and ways people can be with kids and not parent.  Go read these two posts and join in the discussion.

Battlefish has a post about volunteering for the Finnish Red Cross.  First of all, I love that the woman called the sorting of items a “work party.”  But it was a sweet image of volunteering with her daughter on her back.  Go read the post and smile (and maybe get inspired to offer out some volunteer hours).

Lastly, Love and Life in the Petri Dish is holding her breath during the first weeks of her pregnancy.  I think the title says it all: “Inside the Mind of a Habitual Aborter.”  She explains: “It’s a tricky place.  I’m trying to balance in the place that all could be ok. Not to start to think it is ok and get my hopes way up, but not to fall into the chasm that it’s hopeless and doomed either. Just stay the middle path.”  I think this post will resonate with a lot of people.  Go send her good thoughts as she finds that middle place.

The roundup to the Roundup: Not ready for Pottermore to change.  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 September 11th and September 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’s impossible to get to this date and not comment on its significance, even though I have nothing new to say. There are certain dates that beg everyone to speak up; that tug on you until you do. This is one of them.

It demands that you sit with it, think about it, remember it.

I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. So I’m sitting with it. I’m thinking about it and remembering.

*******

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 Last First Day” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Northern Star and Illustr8d
• “Hard is Hard” (Bent Not Broken)
• “Embracing Life Without Children to Raise” (Still Mothers)
• “Microblog Mondays: Things I Wish I Had Known” (A Woman My Age)

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Road Less Travelled has a post remembering her daughter on what should have been her first day of 12th grade.  She writes so eloquently about the far-reaching hand of loss: “People often don’t realize that when you lost a baby, you don’t just lose a baby. You lose the toddler, and the first grader, and the tweener and the teenager, and the high school graduate and the college frosh, and the bride (or groom) and the young employee and the young parent he or she would have become. The children they might have had, too.”  Please go over and read the whole post.

Bent Not Broken has her take on a bit of advice about grief that has recently gone viral on social media.  I first read this advice on Facebook and thought it was very good, especially because when I first read it, it was paired with a quote from Joe Biden’s speech: “There will come a day, I promise you and your parents, as well, when the thought of your son or daughter or your husband or wife brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. It will happen. My prayer for you is that day will come sooner or later.”  Bent Not Broken discusses this idea of waves in regards to infertility, and I love her ability to look at her situation with a clear heart and understanding that she needs to feel what she is going to feel, and one day the waves won’t batter as hard.

I will end on a funny note.  My Pathway to Motherhood has a post titled “Guinea Pig.”  As you can imagine, I was so excited to click over from my feed reader and check out the cuteness.  What I got was something so much better than an actual guinea pig.  I am not going to ruin it for you with a description.  You will need to click over and check out what her daughter did.

The roundup to the Roundup: Thinking about September 11th.  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 September 4th and September 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.

Despite not being a fan of crowds or noise, I love amusement parks with the passion of a thousand suns.  Disney is at the top followed by those off-the-beaten-track-seen-better-days amusement parks where the paint is chipping from the fiberglass mascots and the rides have a look of questionable safety.

I am debating whether this park in Romania would be the best place ever to visit, or whether I’d feel as if I was suffocating being so far below ground.  Salina Turda is an underground park built in an old salt mine.

If I was in the UK, I would be going to see Dismaland. The art installation is only open until September 27th. It is everything I love in an amusement park and more. Mostly I want to go on the merry-go-round.

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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.

*******

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:

• “Funeral for Fun” (Lauren Kayes)
• “Bloom Where You’re Planted” (Lavender Luz)
• “It’s Not About the Costume” (A Half-Baked Life)

Okay, now my choices this week.

A+ Effort finds her line in the sand when it comes to comedy.  In this brief post she recounts a trip to see Book of Mormon and the places where she couldn’t bring herself to laugh.  It was interesting to step back and think about the places where comedy can’t go on an individual level.

There were a lot of back-to-school posts this week.  Much Ado About Nothing has a stream of thoughts about the return to school.  I like this post because it is just a day-in-the-life; the segment of parenthood that you rarely think about when you’re trying to build your family, the happily-ever-after where life is a balance of too many schedules and too little time.  It captures well the reality of parenting, much better than the grinning first-day-of-school pictures that lined Facebook.

POF and Now What? has a post about a job interview.  I think so often we’re given a lot of advice that amounts to “don’t be yourself,” so it is nice to read the opposite of that.  And yes, infertility comes up in the interview.  And yes, I am going to make you click over to read whether or not she got the job.

Lastly, Infertile Fantasies is donating her embryos and writing about the process.  Even if you don’t have plans to donate your embryos, it’s an interesting series of questions you need to consider as well as how the act of donation ties into the act of de-mothering every parent will need to go through in the future.

The roundup to the Roundup: I love amusement parks.  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 28th and September 4th) 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.

So the veterinarian extended the antibiotics last week, but we needed to take a trip.  I mentioned that this was going to be a problem and she stared at me blankly.  “Cancel the trip,” she said.

“Well, I can’t cancel the trip,” I began.

“What were you going to do with him while you were away?” she questioned.

I cocked my head to the side like I was sure there was a right answer to this question and I was not about to give it.  “Um… I was going to leave him for the night.  With food.  And water.  I’ve always heard that it was okay to leave a guinea pig alone for a night.”

The vet just stared at me without speaking.

She finally looked away.  “You’re going to have to get someone to give him the medicine, or you’re going to have to take him with you.”

We took him with us.  Truman is not the biggest fan of long road trips.  He attacked his nemesis, water bottle, taking a running leap at him and batting at it with his little paws.  He would tug it with his mouth and slam it into the wall of his cage.  He took out all of his fear out on water bottle.  We’ve taken to calling it his Moriarty.

He was pretty confused the whole trip.  He especially hated hearing a toilet flush for some reason.  It would cause him to go back to beating up Moriarty.

But you have never seen a happier animal than Truman when we set him back down in the living room at the end of the trip.  He was so happy that he ran around in a circle, wheeking.  It took him about 5 minutes to calm down and eat the lettuce we gave him.

I love my happy boy, even when he gets totally curious and pushes his nose into the camera.

*******

The best part about the road trip?  I got to see Justine.  We drank coffee and walked around her town which has a haunted hotel (which makes it cooler than a regular town) and found one of the keys of Fillory in an antique store.

Her daughter is an awesome photographer.

Even when we start to fall out of the frame.

*******

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:

• “My Nursling, Come and Gone” (Rainbows and Unicorns)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Gypsy Mama’s Family has a post about going back to work.  It has a great opening thought, “Not much work-related has changed in my absence, but being back has made me realize just how much I’ve changed.”  I just loved this post because you can hear the peace of heart in all of her words.

The Empress and the Fool has a heartstopping post about scattering her son’s ashes.  This line made me hold my breath: “It’s easy to be overcome by a sense of infinity in Montauk, its wild and wind-blown vastness: one understands how it earned its moniker, “The End.” He lives here now, body and spirit mingling in the silt and current, unshackled and omnipresent.”  Please go read the whole, gorgeous post and help her hold the memory of her son.

Lavender Luz has a post about the new book, G-d and Jetfire, about open adoption.  It’s an interesting piece putting open adoption on trial, though she points out that she needs to stop the trial analogy because it doesn’t work even though people often want to see things as black-and-white.  It’s a very interesting, thoughtful take on an emotional issue.

Grumpy Rumblings has a post about perfection coming in the form of Internet trends.  For instance, KonMari method circles through the Internet, and suddenly the measuring stick is how well you tidy up.  She writes, “It’s great to try these things out, but if they don’t bring the solutions you were looking for, that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you.”  It’s a nice balance to the cheerleading out there.

Lastly, Something Remarkable has a series of posts about a book that seems to be making its way through the blogosphere: I Know How She Does It.  She writes the first post in 5-minute chunks, showing exactly how she puts the advice into action.  She writes, “We’ve now entered the third 5-chunk of time in which I’ve written this post, which is one of Vanderkam’s strategies… making use of the ‘time confetti’ and smaller moments.”  I’ve been interested in the book, but sort of more interested in the discussion I’m seeing on it.

The roundup to the Roundup: Truman came on our road trip.  I got to see Justine.  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 14th and 21st) 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.