If you haven’t signed in to an old Gmail account in the last two years and want to keep it, you should sign in today because Gmail will purge old accounts soon. They had a few conditions for times when they wouldn’t delete the account, and they sent a message in August:

If your account is considered inactive, we will send several reminder emails to both you and your recovery emails (if any have been provided) before we take any action or delete any account content. These reminder emails will go out at least 8 months before any action is taken on your account.

But just to be on the safe side, go log in.

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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:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

Not a Wasted Word has thoughts on participating in NaBloPoMo, how blogging has changed, and finding community. She writes, “Maybe I don’t need it as much anymore, because I have some really solid friends in the real world that I text with daily and see regularly. And maybe I do, because maybe blogging is about something different for me now, than the connection is used to provide.” I love seeing NaBloPoMo live on because it was part of my job to run it when it moved to BlogHer. This post encapsulates the best of blogging, placing down the random thoughts and finding community in the me too.

Lastly, Finding a Different Path writes about Thanksgiving JOMO. I love the spontaneous drinks at the bar, as well as this thought: “Do I still have the grief of not having the children and family that we wanted? Of course. But it’s not front and center. It’s surrounded by a whole lot of appreciation for the life we do have.” Because the life you have looks pretty awesome.

The roundup to the Roundup: Use it or lose it with old Gmail accounts. 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 24 – December 1) 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.

Let’s pretend you’re reading a book and you’re enjoying it. So you go on social media to look up the author’s page, and she is rabidly against treating infertility. She thinks women who use fertility treatments are destroying the world, doesn’t believe children born from fertility treatments should exist, and actively works to support policies that remove another person’s ability to access IVF.

There is nothing about family building in her book, and she has two children, so she understands why a person would want to build a family.

The question: Would you continue reading the book?

I ran up against a situation like this recently and sat with the decision for a long time. I liked the writer’s first book. I was enjoying the writer’s second book. But when I returned to the page, all I could think about was the writer’s words. I couldn’t get lost in the story because everything felt flat, framed by the writer’s comments outside the story. That had nothing to do with the story.

I returned that book and started someone else’s book because it was a low-stakes decision. I could always return to the first book in the future, but this wasn’t the time to read it.

Social media gives us access to everyone’s thoughts and feelings. Sometimes that’s a great thing. Sometimes it’s not.

One of my favourite things is opening my feed reader and seeing a post from an old blogger who last updated their space months or years ago. They suddenly need to write, so they sit down and write. And due to the magic of the feed reader, we all know the post is up.

Nathan Bransford wrote recently about stepping back from writing , and the message reminded me of blogging.

It’s a psychologically risky business. And when you pause to pursue something else, the questions mount.

What was all the sacrifice for if I’m just going to give it up? If this is what I long believed I was meant to be doing, why am I not doing it? Am I really going to stop this far short of my ultimate dreams?

Let me try to assuage those questions. This happens. Do what you need to do. Writing will be there when you need it.

I love that message: “Writing will be there when you need it.” No one needs to rush and write. Writing will still be there for you whether you pursue it daily, once a week, once a month, or allow several years to pass between posts or stories.

He gives solid advice on how to step back and trust you will one day step forward again.

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

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Josh and I split the house into sections, and we were going to de-clutter one area each week or so, making the house the most organized space in the world before the twins returned for Thanksgiving break. They would marvel at the order. We would smile and say, “It was nothing.”

Yeah, it was pretty much nothing.

We tackled the first section in the first week. Our kitchen was so organized. We started the second section the second week. We stopped in the middle of it because it was a lot of decisions. We put off making those decisions the next week and the following week until we arrive at today (after Thanksgiving), and we’ve only organized 1.5 sections.

We’re now aiming for summer because decision-making is hard.

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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.

The Best: Waking up in the morning and knowing the twins were coming home.

The Worst: Watching their train get delayed delayed delayed.

The Best: Watching them come into view and knowing they were finally here.

The Worst: Standing in the cold rain in the dark.

The Best: Having them walk downstairs in the morning when I’ve missed them so much.

The Worst: Knowing that we only had five wake-ups before they had to return.

The Best: Getting to talk to them in real-time.

The Worst: Thinking about how, at this time next week, we’d be back to phone calls.

The Best: Hugs.

The Worst: Goodbyes.