Category — Friday Blog Roundup

There has clearly always been a time delay with the Olympics (unless you live in or near the host country), and I’m sure the news released results before the evening television coverage when it lined up time-wise. (Right?) But before social media and the 24-hour news cycle, you needed to watch to know or wait for the newspaper to report the results the next day.

Knowing results hours before the televised highlights makes me feel like… I can watch or not watch, and it’s all okay. It feels weird to sometimes get to the end of the night and think, “Oh! I could have watched Olympic coverage.”

The gematria nerd in me loves the fact that there are 613 American athletes at the games. That number may have changed with people not flying to Japan due to COVID-19 results, but I’m going with the number reported during the opening ceremony. I married the right person because Josh and I looked at each other at the exact same moment and said, “613!”

And, of course, I am in awe of Simone Biles. What an incredible woman in addition to being an incredible athlete.

*******

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:

• None… sniff…

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Uterus Monologues has a post about pregnancy after a loss. It has taken her a little while to write it, but she explains: “I couldn’t have done it justice back when I was pregnant after loss myself. Back then, I was just existing, really. I had no reliable perspective on what I needed, what was helping, and what wasn’t.” It’s a great list to bookmark for yourself or send along to others.

The Next 15000 Days recalls a strange wish from a co-worker. It may be simply awkward phrasing—if a person wishes you happiness and you reply that you are happy, it’s not technically wrong to wish a person more happiness. But… it is also commentary on the person’s emotional state. She asks: “Am I happy? I am not sure. But what I am sure is that I am content and I love living my quiet peaceful life.”

Lastly, Not a Wasted Word makes a distinction between better and easier. She unpacks a situation that is better but it’s also harder. Plus, I love this analogy: “It’s actually a relief to recognize that all these seemingly disparate freakouts where just offshoots of the same plant of school-starting-panic. The roots of this plant grow strong, and deep and I’m sure I cannot rid myself of them completely.” Yes to this.

The roundup to the Roundup: A different sort of Olympics. 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 July 23 – July 30) 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.

Auntie Day is this Sunday, July 25th. Savvy Auntie started the day years ago, and it’s always celebrated the fourth Sunday in July. Being an aunt is clearly 10,000 kinds of awesome, not least of which because you can send annoying toys and then not have to live in the home with the annoying toys. For the win!

If you were looking for a reason to have a fancy brunch this weekend, celebrating aunts (being one, having one, living with one, or simply loving the kindly old aunts that show up in British murder mysteries) sounds like the way to go.

Thank you, Savvy Auntie, for lifting up aunts.

*******

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:

• “Everlasting Snowdrops” (Finding a Different Path)
• “Summer Blossoming” (Torthúil)
• “Best Books of June” (Stirrup Queens)—thank you, Jess!

Okay, now my choices this week.

Anabegins has a rundown of her weekends, but it was a thought tucked towards the bottom that made me nod. She is looking forward to five days alone, and she contrasts that with G saying that he’s lonely when he has time alone. She writes, “We are different people clearly. I need a lot of time to myself. I have not been getting it. It has affected my mental health & my relationships. I need some absence to make my heart grow fonder.” It’s so important to know where you fall on that spectrum (I’m on the far end of needing lots of alone time) and giving yourself the type of time you need.

The Next 15,000 Days has a story from a workplace social event that she felt obligated to attend. As they are toasting the guest of honour, she thinks, “If they only knew, how hard it is to be an infertile woman in the fertile world. How hard it was to be a loving wife when my soul had been broken into million pieces.” Her final line of the post—so true.

Lastly, Finding a Different Path has a post about the stories that need to be told. On the importance of diverse books, she points out: “There are so many people who want to see stories that reflect their lives, or to peer through a window into a different existence, but they don’t seem to be listened to as much.” Who gets to tell the story? Who gets to drive the narrative? And when it comes to infertility, who gets to define success? It’s such an interesting read.

The roundup to the Roundup: Happy Auntie Day. 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 July 16 – July 23) 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.

With the exception of a few weeks here and there, the Friday Blog Roundup has officially been running without a break for fifteen years. So 15 years, about 780 posts (let’s round down because I’ve probably missed 10 over the years—so 770 posts), about 3080 of your posts highlighted.

3080 little paragraphs capturing what stayed with me after I stopped reading the post.

It is funny to see it change over the years—figuring out hyperlinks and then linking to the post instead of the main URL for the blog!—and sad to see people gone; either truly gone or stopping their blog.

Once upon a time, every single post was called Friday Blog Roundup. It took me a long time before I started numbering them so people could tell the posts apart, and even then, I messed up the numbering at some point over the years.

So happy anniversary, little Roundup. In two days, we begin your sweet 16.

If I’ve ever highlighted you, drop the post (if you remember one) in the comment section. If I haven’t highlighted you, drop your blog URL in the comment section so I can make sure to read it.

I’ve been super into French mysteries this summer, either in translation or written by UK writers living in France. This past weekend, I ran into a mystery bookstore, hoping to pick up the first books in two series, and they had used copies in mint condition from both. I was so excited that when the owner was ringing me up, I started babbling about how much I love French mysteries since I was introduced to Martin Walker’s books.

“He’s my neighbour,” she commented.

“Here?” I asked, looking around the Maryland bookshop.

“No. In France. We also own a home in France, and we moved there because he told us about the town.”

She pulled out a bound photo book behind the desk and showed me pictures of her home in this tiny town in France. Sure enough, one of the pictures contained Martin Walker, cooking dinner.

She rents out her French home, and she gave me the information so we can book it next time we travel. And she reminded me to read quickly because he has a new book in the Bruno series coming out this summer. If you can’t travel, you can always go mentally to the French countryside with a story.

Completely random moment that I did not expect to happen while picking up books.

*******

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:

• “Die dritte Zahnbürste” (Die dritte Zahnbürste)
• “The Murder & The Funeral” (Lavender Luz)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Happy birthday to In Quest of a Binky Moongee. I loved this post because the things needed to make the day feel special were so simple. Food she wanted to eat. People she wanted to be with. She writes: “Last year they had to stand outside with a cake to sing me a birthday song. The fact that we could all be under one roof to sing a happy birthday song and enjoy a birthday cake is such a blessing. That was all I wanted.” Glad it was a great celebration.

Infertile Phoenix went through a difficult (fifth!) move, but she learned lessons along the way. Like she can do really hard things. And I love this thought: “I just kept moving away from what I didn’t want and moving toward what I did want.” Yes!

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ has rounded up great quotes that speak to the experience of living child free after infertility. The quotes are great, but so is Mali’s thought: “Being open to the future, rather than clinging to the hopes of the past, is really what sets us up for a happy No Kidding rest of our lives.”

The roundup to the Roundup: Random moments in bookstores. 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 July 9 – July 16) 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.

Josh and I went to Politics and Prose for the first time in 16 months. He picked up books at the store during the pandemic—you ordered and paid over the phone, and then they let you know when your order was ready and you drove up. But this was going inside and browsing for books. It felt so odd to be inside with other people, all looking at books, which is such a slow, lingering activity.

I went for one cookbook—the new Linda McCartney’s Family Kitchen—and ended up with a second one: Ultimate Veg by Jamie Oliver. I’m usually pretty wary of Jamie Oliver’s amounts because they’re off in his old recipes. But these recipes looked do-able at first glance.

I only like paper books for cookbooks. I can read fiction e-books, but I need a big book on the table if I’m cooking.

*******

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:

• “True First Day of Summer” (Finding a Different Path)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Hopelessly Infertile and Surrounded by Fertiles has a raw post about her first thoughts when she learned about a distant cousin’s motherless baby. She writes: “For a moment, hearing about this baby who had just lost her mother, I yearned for that baby in a way that’s hard to articulate. Reality came crashing in moments later.” It’s not about a true plan but the thoughts that pop into your head when you spend so long trying to build your family.

The Road Less Travelled asks if we’ve turned into fireworks jerks. Uh… kind of? Like Loribeth, the only fireworks growing up were the big ones downtown and a smaller version in a city nearby. They are still banned in my county, so there shouldn’t be any fireworks going off except approved events. But we heard them all weekend. She writes: “This year, my country’s Indigenous peoples/First Nations requested that Canada Day celebrations be cancelled or scaled back, out of respect for the very recent discovery of hundreds of unmarked children’s graves found near former residential schools … But judging by the steady barrage of fireworks set off in my neighbourhood alone over the weekend — and reports of many others across the country — not too many people seemed to have received the message.” It’s a thought-provoking post.

Lastly, A Separate Life writes about losing a blogging friend. She captures those longtime relationships forged with people online (in this case, since 2007), following each other through multiple blog iterations and social platforms. It’s a bittersweet post that will make you think of your own friendships forged online.

The roundup to the Roundup: New cookbooks. 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 July 2 – July 9) 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.