Category — Friday Blog Roundup

The kids are both home — hooray! And I realized something brilliant this week. There are eight nights of Chanukkah, and with four people in the family, we each get to light twice. In the past, we’ve always repeated the same order, so whoever lights the first night also lights the 5th night, etc. Clearly, the best position (if you like lighting candles) would be on the 4th and 8th nights because you get the most candles.

BUT.

If you reverse the order on the back half of the holiday, everyone gets to light nine candles:

First night + eighth night = 9
Second night + seventh night = 9
Third night + sixth night = 9
Fourth night + fifth night = 9

I was this many years old when I realized that. So now everyone lights the same number of candles. Thanks, math.

*******

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.

The Road Less Travelled writes about the gut punch of learning someone has died, in this case, a friend of 41 years. She writes: “Hug the people you love. Make that phone call, send that email, arrange that lunch date.  Life is short, and tomorrow is not promised.” Sending a big hug after reading this beautiful tribute.

Lastly, All & Sundry writes about realizing you’re living a better life. I love this part so much: “How I did not realize just how much better my life could be. I was so afraid to leave the comfort I had, I didn’t know it was like riding wrong in the saddle. You think it’s fine until you feel something better, and then that just blows your whole world wide open.” So much of life is having the courage to make a change and see if something can be even better than what you have now.

The roundup to the Roundup: Thanks, math. 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 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.

Once a week, I diligently run down all of the tasks on my backup list, which includes backing up this space. I back it up four different ways, not truly understanding which type of backup I would want to use if I had to restore the site. Better safe than sorry.

So I was making my weekly backup in the cPanel file manager, when instead of clicking on the folder, I somehow MADE THE FOLDER DISAPPEAR. Like it was gone. And there is no undo button in the cPanel.

This story clearly has a happy ending because you are reading it on my blog, but I felt completely sick in that moment. I had no clue what I did. All I knew was that the file was not in the trash, and if you looked for my website on the internet, it showed a fatal error message because THE WEBSITE WAS GONE.

I started opening up nearby folders and finally found the folder inside another folder. Then I had to figure out how to move it back to the correct place. And then check that everything worked again. The whole thing unfolded in only a few minutes, but I felt sick for hours afterward because it was such a stupid mistake.

Note to self: Be extra careful when working in the cPanel.

*******

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.

Not a Wasted Word has a post about the stories we tell ourselves. In this case, it’s using coincidences to confirm that something is meant to be. She gives examples of small things and big things, but I related a lot to the post because we all try to make sense of a (possibly) chaotic world. But this is the part I found so interesting: “Anyway, I am definitely telling myself the story that, THIS WAS MEANT TO BE! Which makes me a little worried that I’m not considering all the issues. Can I be clear minded about something when I’m telling myself this story?” Yes? I think?

Lastly, The Barreness dumps out her brain and catches us up: From a trip that went well to car troubles to a scary moment with her FIL. She writes about the aftermath: “We went to a restaurant in town to stare at each other, ask each other over and over “you okay”; my hip/thigh pulsing in pain and try to process the evening that just unfolded under a beautiful full moon in front of the gallery on the biggest night of the year … Totally normal, totally surreal, absolutely baseline for this year.” I especially love the captured moment of kindness at the end.

The roundup to the Roundup: A blog backup horror story. 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 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’m not a big shopper this time of year — we don’t have gifts to buy — but I normally love to browse the book deals on either Black Friday or Cyber Monday. I almost always find something on my TBR. I keep a spreadsheet of every book purchase (of course, I do), and so many of them take place in late November or December.

But this year, there was nothing. I mean, there literally wasn’t a special one-day flash sale. There were just the sale books that had been the sale books all week, just like every other week. The e-book dealers (at least in the US) skipped the big sale weekend.

I mostly buy physical books rather than e-books, so maybe it’s just as well. But it was a bit of a bummer. Even when I don’t buy anything, I like the lists to see what books make it on.

*******

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.

The Next 15,000 Days posted her Christmas wish, and it’s super simple to give it. You just have to send her an email. Tell her about yourself. Anything you want. Where you’re from, whether you read her blog, what you’re looking forward to this year. It’s the season of connection.

A day or two late reading this, but Middle Girl jumps back through the decades, starting with age 7 because she is currently 57. In little snippets, she talks about one thing she remembers from each decade. It’s a lovely exercise to look back on what was occupying your heart at various stage of life.

The roundup to the Roundup: Where did the book sales go? 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 November 28 – Dec 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.

It’s a good week because the kids came home and I could smoosh them in person. I love it when they’re here, and Quentin is beside himself with excitement.

It’s so hard anticipating that they’re going again in a few days because it’s so hard when they go.

I’m happy that they’ll be home again a few weeks later for winter break. But it doesn’t make the leaving any easier for me.

*******

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:

• “Hope vs. Optimism” (No Kidding in NZ)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Whoa! Infertile Phoenix moved a very far distance. I love this: “But it is done and I am proud. I saved myself once again. I saw what wasn’t working. I saw the direction things were headed, and I made major changes. Did I want to do all of that work? Not at all. Not any of it. But I did it anyway.” There is a lot of power in saving yourself and making things happen.

Lastly, Finding a Different Path explains how she can instantly recall the age of her sofa because they were “part of our ‘things we can have because we’ll never have children’ campaign.” It’s funny how we can date things through these random associations. The simple objects that we see in other people’s homes can carry enormous stories.

The roundup to the Roundup: Good break. 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 November 21 – 28) 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.

This hotel we stay at has horses on the property. We parked facing the corral, and when we went to our car after we checked out, a horse was standing in front of our car, patiently waiting for us on the other side of the low fence. It motioned with its head to one of the treat boxes.

“We have to give it treats,” I told Josh.

There are about six of these treat boxes attached to the corral fence, and you can purchase a handful of treats from what looks like a gumball machine for a quarter. The first machine was broken, but the horse slowly followed us around the corral until we found a working machine. We placed the treats in the nearest box, and it happily started eating.

But the sounds of the treats hitting the wooden box brought over other horses. No worries. Our horse patiently motioned with its head to the next box over. We bought more treats, dropped them into the new box, and it happily went back to eating. Except that the other horses soon joined our horse. No worries again. Our horse patiently sighed and motioned to the next box with its head. We followed it three times.

Horses are so smart.

*******

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.

The Road Less Travelled talks about attending a six-year-old’s birthday party. She writes: “If you had told me, 27 years ago this month (and still reeling from heartbreak of pregnancy loss), that 27 years later I would find myself in a party room at a retro video game arcade, surrounded by some 20 excited kids aged 6 and under, plus their young parents — and even having some fun while doing it — I never would have believed you.” Life takes funny twists and turns, and we never completely know what we’ll feel until we’re feeling it. A great reminder. (And sending a lot of good thoughts that the Purell took care of everything else.)

Lastly, on the topic of not knowing how something will go until you’re going through it, All & Sundry writes about how divorce (and this year, in general) is different from what she expected. I love this: “And this is life, it unfolds the way it does against our wishes sometimes. I can’t change what is so I have to work with it. There are a lot of wonderful things going on and I have to lean into gratitude while still feeling the grief.” Sending a big hug.

The roundup to the Roundup: Smart horses. 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 November 14 – 21) 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.