Category — Friday Blog Roundup

It is raining here.  A lot.  The rain causes flash flooding, so you have to take detours and plan extra time to get where you’re going sometimes.  There is rain in the forecast every single day for the next 15 days.  There may be more rain beyond that; the forecast only goes for 15 days on my weather app.

It’s hard to feel cheery when everything is so wet.

*******

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 Hedges and the Midwife” (Regie’s Blog)
• “Insensitive Sister” (Infertile Phoenix)

Okay, now my choices this week.

No Kidding in NZ has a post about the Netflix special, Nanette, which I also watched this week.  As I commented over there, I watched it without any preconceived notions or knowledge about the show or Hannah Gadsby, and I think that’s the best way to experience it.  (Don’t Google it!)  Luckily, there are no spoilers in this post.  So go view and then jump into the conversation.

Inexplicably Missing is going on an amazing trip, but first she’s discussing whether it’s a good thing to block yourself off from your feelings.  Is it something to be admired?  I’m inclined to lean towards admired, too; feelings are just that — feelings.  In other words, they are real but can change and are often subject to information coupled with many other factors.  So I’m sort of in awe of anyone who can compartmentalize.  And the trip sounds amazing.

Lastly, Countingpinklines welcomes her baby.  I love this post for the happy news AND because it feels like old school blogging; connecting with others by stating your truth.  It’s amazing.  It’s surreal.  It’s emotional.  It’s exhausting.  She writes, “Right after he was born, they put him in my arms. And I just started crying. He’s here. Finally. And he’s mine. And I cannot believe that little 100 cell blob I saw on the screen grew into an actual baby with all his fingers and toes and is so perfect.”  Congratulations!

The roundup to the Roundup: It’s raining, it’s pouring.  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 20th and 27th) 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 definitely not jet lagged because I’m not waking up in the middle of the night anymore, but my brain feels like it’s moving slowly.  Like there’s a film covering it, and I have to think really hard to connect to thoughts.  This is the one drawback to travel. (Well, this and flying.  Flying is something I endure, I don’t enjoy.)  That hard landing where you’re trying to re-acclimate to a life that you lived so easily before you left.

I have a friend who is currently traveling the world for the year.  Part of me wants to do that so badly, and part of me wonders how I’d ever fit back into my life here after doing that.  If a couple of weeks in Scotland has made my brain cloudy, what would 52 weeks overseas do to accessing normal life?

*******

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:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Road Less Travelled marked the 40th anniversary of IVF (or Louise Joy Brown’s 40th birthday) with a post about the other side of IVF; the one not discussed in all the articles this week.  When it works, it’s fantastic.  But like so many things, it doesn’t always work despite it being presented as a done deal.  She writes, “I am happy that something like 8 million more IVF babies have been born in the years since then, fulfilling so many more couples’ dreams of having a family. I’m happy that it’s worked for some of you who are reading this. But I am sad that many, many more millions of couples have walked away from IVF & ARTs without the baby they’d dreamed of.”  Go over and read the whole post (and video).

It’s common for parents to write blog posts to their children on their birthday, but I really loved A+ Effort’s post to Miss E.  Maybe because I’ve gotten to see her grow up on the blog (she’s seven!).  That’s the best part about this community and, in general, when people keep blogging; you get to see people grow up and change and do amazing things.  Happy birthday, Miss E.  And congratulations on being Queen of the Garden.

Lastly, and I saved this one for last because there are spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale, but like My Path to Mommyhood, I also identify with Serena Joy.  And it made me vaguely uncomfortable during the first season; like it revealed an ugly truth when I understood her sometimes more than other characters.  In fact, I haven’t watched season two yet because of that, though I was actually happy for the spoilers because it’s the sort of show that I’d rather watch with a heads up.  I may let this one go for a little while until the time feels right because it sounds like there will be tears.

The roundup to the Roundup: Travel muddles (as well as grows?) the brain.  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 13th and 20th) 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 Friday the 13th.  Thus continues my compulsive need to mention that whenever Friday the 13th coincides with the Roundup.

*******

I read a great book recently — Us by David Nicholls.  The book is a few years old.  It’s about a couple who is considering separating going on one last (maybe?) vacation with their teenage son before he leaves for college.  It’s fantastic writing but the thing I loved most is that every chapter is just a few pages long.  I am smitten with authors who create mini breaks or tiny chapters so you can jump in and out of the story quickly.  Sometimes I won’t start reading if I don’t know how long I have to read if I see that I need to commit to dozens of pages before I get to the next break.

This was the exact opposite of that — inviting you to spend just a few minutes with the book before bouncing back out again.  Though the story was so good that I often said to myself, “just one more” when I got to each break.

Any other books that you can think of like that with chapters consistently two or three pages in length?

*******

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:

(These are from the last normal Roundup, though if you haven’t already done so, peruse the great posts in  last week’s Roundup Celebration)

• “When Fears Backfire” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Cristy.  Also, in case you’re interested, zombies scare us the most.
• “Loving My Body Again” (My Path to Mommyhood)
• “Unexpected Healing” (NotMyLinesYet)
• “A Thank You to Mel” (No Kidding in NZ)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Pregnancy After Loss Support has a post about people shaming others for trying again after a loss.  She explains, “That face, and that judgement, represented all of the fears we didn’t want to acknowledge. It was as though they were questioning, ‘Why are you doing this to yourselves?’ and more so, ‘How could you put these babies through this?’”  It’s a hard situation made all the more difficult by other people’s opinions.  It’s a really good post about why it’s important to give support and not stress.

Different Shores has a post about the recent NYT article about being childfree.  She talks about where she connected to the writer’s words, but also “the very un-21st century prejudice that many people still harbour towards those who are ageing without partners or offspring.”  The point of the NYT article is that the author is happy, leading an interesting life with an interesting job, and shouldn’t have to work to convince people.  But Different Shores points out that the average person is happy, too, and should also be believed.

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ has a post of bullet points, one being about a newscaster’s response to the Thai soccer team trapped in the cave.  She writes, “Someone commented that it was ‘the worst thing imaginable, being trapped in a cave in the dark with water rising.’ ‘I’ll tell you something worse – it’s being the parent worrying about your kid trapped in a cave,’ said another guy.”  It’s commentary not just about the lens we use to view a situation but considering other possible lens, too.

The roundup to the Roundup: It’s Friday the 13th.  I like short chapters.  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 6th and 13th) 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.

In honour of the 700th Roundup (really 600th due to misnumbering), I’m asking YOU to comment with a link to a post that has stuck with you.  It can be your post or someone else’s post.  It can be written any time within the last 12 years.  (The first Roundup was on July 21, 2006.)

Leave a link and an explanation for why this post resonated with you, just like the regular Roundup.  Once you leave your post, go and peruse everyone else’s post.

If you’re posting more than one, please put them in individual comments (not bunching them into one comment).  And, yes, the more the merrier so post as many as you wish in separate comments.

This is mine to kick things off:

I’ve thought often about Toddler Planet’s “It’s Not Fair” since she wrote it back in 2011.  And I return to read it again and again as a reminder of how to get through life with grace.  She wrote it about six months before she died from metastatic breast cancer.  These lines may not make sense without reading the longer parable contained in the post, but I think about them all the time: “We each get one life, one daily wage, and that’s it.  The guy next door gets one life to live.  The mom down the street gets one too.  No one ever promised us the same life, the same opportunities, the same blessings, or the same time to live.  No one ever promised that.  We are promised one opportunity, one life, and how we live it is between us and our Creator (I believe).  There is no comparing.”  She did a lot of amazing things while she was on this planet, and I’m eternally grateful for her writing that put the imbalance of the world into perspective gave a frame for considering all moments.  I hope this post changes your life, too.

I cannot wait to see what you guys post.  Give us posts to read to celebrate the weekly Roundup!

700 Roundups.  Okay, really 600 Roundups because the Roundups got misnumbered along the way, but it’s still an impressive feat.  I’ve only missed around 10 Roundups in the last 12 years.  And if I highlight — on average — four posts per Roundup, that means I’ve highlighted about 2,400 posts.

Remember, next week, we’re marking this milestone with a little online party.  Bring a single post (your own or someone else’s post) to share with everyone else.  You’ll add them via the comment section so you also have space to explain why you chose that particular post.  So get choosing.

*******

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:

• “And Now We Are Four” (With Every Heartbeat)
• “No Fast Forward Button to Healing” (No Kidding in NZ)
• “Alloparents” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Jess!

Okay, now my choices this week.

One of the nicest things about the Internet is finding two unrelated people both sharing the same sweet moment.  (This happens all the time with birthdays on Facebook.)  Inconceivable has a post about her 13th anniversary.  I love it for this line: “As far as creative and collaborative endeavors go, I think it’s a success so far, that we still wake up and wouldn’t want to do this with anyone else.”  Sounds like a success to me.  And then Searching for Our Silver Lining has a post about her 14th anniversary.  I love it for this line: “Because before the one before the four there is almost a quarter of a lifetime’s worth of memories, crazy stories that bring about belly laughs and moments that still bring tears to my eyes.”  And for both, I love the behind-the-scenes glimpses into a life.  Congratulations!

Risakerlake answers anything about cycling again after a failed cycle.  She admits that she feels like she’s in the minority in moving on to the next cycle as quickly as possible.  She writes, “Sometimes I think I’m in the minority when it comes to this because the first thing I wanted to do after a failed cycle was get right on to the next one.”  As she says, there isn’t one way to do it — everyone needs to choose what fits their heart (and budget and body).  But it’s an interesting question — how one chooses what to do next.

Not a Wasted Word has a post about watching the Handmaid’s Tale, calling it misery porn.  I’m not watching this season — at least, not yet — though I went through a similar struggle in identifying with Serena Joy despite also despising Serena Joy in season one.  She’s infertile.  She’s a horrible human being.  It feels awful to identify with her.

Lastly, Lavender Luz opens up a discussion on the border situation with an analogy used to explain adoption, especially as adoption is offered up as a solution to the immigration crisis.  She writes, “As long as the prevailing adoption narrative leads people to believe adoption is Win/Win, we will keep acting as though parents ARE interchangeable. As we know from the switcheroo scenario above, that is not true.”  It’s a post that offers a lot of food for thought.

The roundup to the Roundup: 700 (okay, 600) Roundups! July 6th — Roundup celebration (be there or be square).  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 June 22nd and 29th) 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.