Chanukkah started last night. We have a cabinet with a random assortment of unused candles from Chanukkahs past. I would enter the holiday with good intentions: I’ll light the chanukkiah all eight nights.

To prove my commitment, I would light it the first night. And maybe I would light it the second night. But I would forget by the third. And I’d remember but decide I didn’t feel like cleaning the chanukkiah of the fourth. So on and so forth until the seventh night when I would remember once again and say something like, “I stick the landing with Pesach.”

The boxes generally contain the exact number of candles — 44 — you need for the holiday. So, each box in the cabinet has a jumble of leftover candles.

But I told Josh to buy me a new box this year, AND I had the brilliant idea to write the task into my daily to-do list. Anything written on the to-do list gets done. So tonight, we will light for the second night, and I will remember to do it the third night and beyond.

Thanks, to-do list. You’re the gift that keeps giving.

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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 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. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “We Are Trying” (The Antidote)

Okay, now my choices this week.

No Kidding in NZ has a post about when holiday expectations go awry. She was set to have one kind of holiday (food, wine, adult time), and now she’s having another (three-year-old child), and while she would have ended up in the same hosting space, the situation happened without the ability to process it with a deep breath. She explains: “But as a childless person who has been through the painful process of learning to embrace the joys of an adult Christmas, and for years has successfully done this, I’m now going to be reminded, closely and intently, of what I will have missed.” Figuratively, I’ll be in your pocket while you’re hosting, so know that there are people out here who have your back.

Lastly, Infertile Phoenix unpacks the two future choices highlighted for young girls — mom or career woman — but I love this nugget of truth: “Some things in life are going really well and some things are not. And, well, that’s because that’s how life goes.” That is life. Things are rarely all good or all bad. It’s a mix.

The roundup to the Roundup: To-do lists work. 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 1 – 8) 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.

If you achieve your monthly fitness challenge, Apple Fitness delivers a slightly harder challenge the following month. Achieve enough months in a row, and your challenge becomes something like, “Burn 60,000 calories per day for 14 days, and we’ll give you a digital badge.” When it gets to that point, I skip the month, and the challenges deflate back to something like, “Try to walk three times this month.”

I was close to skipping last month’s challenge when ChickieNob commented that it would only take three days of long afternoon walks to finish what I had halfheartedly started. To make my indoor walk more enjoyable, I switched from first-person walking videos (which are great but always make me mindful of how much time has passed) to rewatching The Crown from season 1, episode 1.

I love it so much. I got lost in the episode, and it made me notice so many things that I missed watching it the first time, as well as how much Elizabeth changes with age and experience.

I received my digital badge, so my next challenge was even more ridiculous. But I will stick with The Crown and see the whole series again from beginning to end.

I saw a super interesting idea online. The person is publishing their book one chapter at a time to make it the best book possible by allowing everyone to play editor. It’s non-fiction, which probably works better than fiction. (I cannot imagine incorporating everyone’s opinion on a story.)

The site explains:

As a reader, you can comment on a passage from the text, or respond to another comment. The author will accept or dismiss these comments. Once the author implements comments, a new draft will be created and the current one archived. Helpful commenters will be thanked in print at the author’s discretion.

So, like Wikipedia, collecting knowledge from multiple places/people, but with the goal to arrive at the best finished product.

I have nothing to add on this subject, but I think it’s such a cool idea that I will keep checking back to see future books unfold.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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You know how someone will say a fact like, “Nothing rhymes with orange,” and your brain immediately starts trying to find something that rhymes with orange? That’s how I felt reading these words: “Ultimately there will be as many last times as there were first times.” My brain immediately said, “No, there are things where there is no last time! Let me name them.” Except, you know, death. So there will be a last time to everything you begin.

Which is why this paragraph feels… mindset changing.

For ninety-nine percent of these last times, you will have no idea that that’s what it is. It will seem like another of the many middle times, with a lot more to come. If you knew it was the last-ever time you spoke to a certain person or did a certain activity, you’d probably make a point of appreciating it … Many last times are still a long way in the future, of course. The trouble is you don’t know which ones.

Go read the whole post.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

While my mending is not always as neat as newness, my dislike of change is so enormous that I would rather have some uneven stitches on my shirt than buy a new one. A case in point: I recently repaired the iPad cover with superglue so I wouldn’t have to switch the colour to a new one. (I also wanted to avoid going to the mall or ordering one online. So maybe it’s more than just change.)

I saw this on someone’s site, and I apologize because I don’t remember where. I’m passing it along in case you are equally passionate about fixing your own things. It’s a fantastic guide on how to fix things and when to ask for help from someone else.