Category — Friday Blog Roundup

The Wolvog and ChickieNob have started taking 3-D 360 photographs and showing them through a VR viewer.  Their viewer doesn’t have a head strap, so they fashioned one out of an old pair of swim goggles.  Sometimes I see them walking around the house, spinning around very slowly with their hands outstretched.

I had not put their VR viewer back on my head since the first time I tried the VR viewer and wanted to throw up for hours afterward.  But I recently tried it again now that the pictures are coming from inside the house.  (Cue scary music.)

I stood in the kitchen and spun around, looking at our living room.  Instead of feeling the carpet beneath my feet, which I could see any time I looked down, I felt the cold tiles of the kitchen floor.  So disconcerting.

But the creepiest thing was that they snapped a picture of me talking to Josh.  So I am standing in the kitchen, staring at my back in the living room, facing Josh.  It felt like I was astrally-projecting and viewing my own life… like Harry going into the Pensieve.  It was so so so so so weird.

Oh, and I still have a headache from it days later.  So, virtual reality… not for me.  But pretty much the weirdest thing I experienced all week.

*******

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 Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck: Book Review” (The MotherHub)
• “The Power of Awareness and Education” (The Road Less Travelled)
• “Exploring Infertility Treatment Options: the Augment Treatment” (The Write Mama)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Res Cogitatae has a post with a title that would normally make me run away screaming, but luckily I stuck around to read it because it’s a thoughtful piece about how you set up your life.  As a fellow ant, it made me seek out my inner grasshopper this week because she’s right: you never know what life will bring.  She writes, “This isn’t a dress rehearsal.  This is all we get.”  Amen.

Cynful Thoughts has a post about loss and why she speaks about it despite other people’s discomfort.  She points out: “The fact is, the whole reason no one wants you to announce your pregnancy early, is because if you should lose it, YOU will make OTHER PEOPLE uncomfortable with the news. THEY won’t know what to say. THEY may feel squirmy and anxious around you, trying to find the right words. YOU DEFINITELY DON’T WANT THEM TO FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE!”  Please go over and read the whole post.

Lastly, Everything Comes with Pancakes has a post about the two sides of crying.  Is it a release or a surrender?  Either way, go over and give her a hug.

The roundup to the Roundup: Now I know what it’s like in the Pensieve. 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 9th and 16th) 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.

Forgive me if I have difficulty processing things this week, but I just read that Grease is essentially the Sixth Sense with poodle skirts.  Sandy is dead, people.  Dead.  She didn’t nearly drown.  She did drown and we just spent two hours in her musical coma.

Which explains why the car flies away at the end of the film.

Wait… is the stage show ALSO her dream?  Or just the movie?

It makes me wonder what other seemingly living characters are actually dreaming from hospital beds.

*******

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.

Okay, Loribeth technically submitted this for second helpings, but I already had it bookmarked for the Roundup, so I’m including it here.  My Path to Mommyhood has a fantastic post about the story you get to tell.  It actually reminded me a lot of Susan’s timeless post about fairness that I wrote about earlier this week, and I have a feeling this will be one I return to a lot.  She writes, “what you want and what you get are two different things, and that you can make the most of it but it’s okay to be upset and bewildered by the story you got, and share that so that you can find other people who understand what it’s like to live in that particular reality.”  Clearly the post resonated with a lot of us.

A Separate Life has a post about when our privacy ends, which is timely because I just got the ChickieNob Anne Frank’s diary to read.  She writes on the topic of private correspondence being held up as historical evidence after a death: “in the circumstances of a public or historic figure, is universally ignored and excused, as we – like vultures – pick over their most private thoughts shared with a trusted confidante. Does our privacy end with our death?”  Where do you stand on reading a person’s private thoughts after they’re gone?

Lastly, Different Shores has a post about the Scottish Prime Minister’s statement about her miscarriage.  On one hand, it is good to have loss discussed from a public platform.  On the other hand, is she being forced (or stepping forward willingly?) to explain why she doesn’t have children, even though her reason is personal and doesn’t impact her ability to do her job.  She asks: “Will there ever be a time when women without children are left in peace to just be, without feeling obliged at some time or other to explain why they didn’t reproduce?”  There is an interesting discussion in the comment section, too.

The roundup to the Roundup: Grease… mind blown. 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 2nd and 9th) 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 a few weeks ago, Josh and I had a date night.  After we ate really good sushi, we sat in the parked car and I outlined all the ways I was unhappy with things in life.  I had pushed myself out of my comfort zone, trying too many new things at once, and I was not only longing to get back into my comfort zone, but to also finish reading a freakin’ book.  Usually summer is a time that I tear through books, but we had gotten lazy and usually watched television in the evening.  As a result, the number of books I read this year was embarrassingly low.

I am slowly returning to writing fiction, but I’m also returning to reading fiction.  Every night, we’ve declared screens off at a set time, no exceptions.  The twins need to have screens off by 8:30 pm.  We need to have screens off by 10:45 pm.  In both cases, we read before bed.

Not only are we all sleeping 20 times better (the twins used to stay up until 11 pm stating they couldn’t fall asleep), but I’m actually getting through books again.  I’m really excited to look at my TBR list rather than feel suffocated by it.  It’s a nice feeling.

I’m going to trim a bunch of news sites out of my RSS reader so I only have personal blogs to read.  I’m trying to get back to what really matters to me so my screen time is used well.  Wish me luck.

*******

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:

• “Dialectic” (The Empress and the Fool)
• “Thinking About Blogging” (No Kidding in NZ)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Baby, Borneo, or Bust has a post about being unable to sleep because she has a lot on her mind.  She writes, “I am trying to figure out what is bothering me, what problem, what stress, I am holding too near.  But I can’t put my finger on it.  It’s everything.  It’s nothing in particular.”  But I also love the release at the end; that realization that sometimes simply writing it down and taking it out of your head makes the difference.

Every once in a while, Infertile Fantasies pops up with a post, and they’re always good.  This week she wrote about closure, about waiting for closure or creating closure.  This part of the post made me weepy: “I want to thank you all for helping to be our closure. I can’t say that enough. And I include in that the wise woman whose words I’ve discussed here. Truly, you guys are my stars and you’ve aligned for us.”  Me, too.

Lastly, River Runs Dry has a really scary story about witnessing a car accident.  I had chills run down both arms reading these words: “I work really hard at staying alive. I exercise every day, prepare healthy foods for my family and eat very little junk food … It could have been me yesterday, and I could have walked away from it like the guy did, or I could have been really, really hurt. Or I could have died.”  It’s a sobering post about the things outside our control.

The roundup to the Roundup: Screens off at night means I’m reading books again and sleeping better. 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 26th and September 2nd) 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.

The twins now have a locker.  Well, they each have their own locker.  This is a big step up from elementary school when all they had was a desk and a cubby.  Both have a few issues opening said lockers.

But that’s not the point.  The point is that it is very important that we decorate said locker within an inch of its life.  I’ve been tucking away comic books and ripping pictures from People magazine all summer that they can use to wallpaper the walls.  And I’m getting each a dry erase board so they can write themselves important notes.  (But which I know they’ll use to write song lyrics and ridiculous things from autocorrect.)

Here’s the memory I have from middle school/high school, and I’m not sure kids still do this: Did you decorate your friends’ lockers for their birthday?  I remember that after you left school the day before your birthday, your friends stayed behind and filled your locker with streamers and balloons and candy.  If you had a summer birthday, people usually did it during your half-birthday.  Was this a thing where you lived?

I told the kids I needed their locker combo so I could surprise them with something like that one day because I wasn’t sure kids did that anymore.  And it was always the best feeling to open that metal door and have tiny balloons fall out on you.  Though they pointed out that if no one did this anymore, it would look a little weird.  Are kids still doing this these days?

*******

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.

Res Cogitatae has a post about worrying that struck close to home.  She worries about a potential non-problem (she just doesn’t know yet) because it’s a situation that has a solution, and it distracts her from the very real problems that currently exist that do not have solutions.  It’s also a post about what it’s like to parent a second child.  Just a really really good read about how we’re all individuals, but there are clearly commonalities, too.

Dear Noah has a post about the fact that had Noah lived, he would have been starting preschool.  She writes, “Owen’s school is incredibly full.  There are wait lists for every class but one.  The one that Noah would have been in.  His spot is there.  But he isn’t.”  Please go over and give her a hug.

Lastly, Riding the IVF Roller Coaster is back with an update.  She muses about whether she should change the title now that she’s not doing IVF, but IVF is still a lens through which she sees the world.  She writes, “I think I’ve been living less deliberately than I should. I’ve been trying to keep my head above water for so long that I’ve come to consider treading water OK.”  As a fellow water treader, I want to start swimming again, too.

The roundup to the Roundup: Did people decorate your locker for your birthday?  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 19th and 26th) 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.

The kids and I jumped back in the car this week and returned to the beach on our own. Josh stayed home with Truman, though the hotel staff seemed genuinely sad that we didn’t bring him along and asked about him.  Truman, I mean.  Sorry, Josh.

We spent a few days eating junk food… I mean truly junk food.  Like you would be horrified if I told you what we ate for three days.  The twins swam in the ocean for six hours while I stood in thigh-high water and watched them.  We read Mockingjay aloud on the beach and browsed books in the bookstore and stayed up late each night watching Olympics.  We went biking one morning to balance out the extreme amount of junk food we ate.  (Did I mention that it was grotesque, the junk food consumption?)  We mused about what happened to the settlement at Roanoke Island and watched several families of dolphin jump out of the water while they moved across the shore.

It was really hard to leave.  We’ll go back a few times this fall and winter, but the last trip of summer is always hard.  I feel so much a part of the town even though I’m an outsider.  I’m a part of it because my heart so badly wants to be a part of it.  I can visit there and get by for a bit — many of the townspeople know us by name and greet us as if we’re one of them.  But they know and I know that I’m not really one of them.  They belong and I do not.  And it breaks my heart every time I have to cross over the bridge, the light bouncing off the salt marsh.

I think I’m a little down that summer is almost over.  Actually, I don’t just think it.  I am.

*******

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:

• “An Unwelcome Invitation” (Bent Not Broken)
• “Is One So Bad? Exploring the Only Child Experience” (My Path to Mommyhood)
• “Auditioning Books” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Torthúil!

Okay, now my choices this week.

Laughing IS Conceivable has a funny (and true) post about trying to talk to an infertile woman.  I laughed aloud with this: “I, for one, was always a ticking emotional time bomb. The only times I wasn’t ticking was when I actually exploded all over somebody. Then I reset the timer.”  Go over and read the whole thing.

Empty Arms, Broken Heart has a post about following bloggers’ stories that summed up what I love about blogs, this community, and the wistfulness I feel when a name pops up who hasn’t posted in a while and I wonder how they are.  She writes, “Parenting after infertility is a unique voice. Those who stick around know there is always more to tell. And I look forward to following along.”

Lastly, Magpie Musings has an important post about the idea of going to funerals.  Why you should go, and when you can’t go, send a condolence card.  She writes, “Honestly – get out a card, or your good writing paper, and a pen, and write two or five sentences, and put it in the mail with a live stamp on it. It is the least that you can do, and in my book, it’s acceptable if you have never met your imaginary friend’s father or your casual acquaintance’s sister.”  It’s one of those posts that I will always think about when I hear that someone has died.  Because she’s right.  Go to the funeral or send the card.

The roundup to the Roundup: Last beach trip of the summer.  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 12th and 19th) 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.