2020 was the last time I sent mishloach manot for Purim. It was right at the start of COVID, and I questioned the intelligence of dropping off baked goods for friends and family. But we had already made the cookies and candies, and everything was ready to go. That was the last time I did a major project like that.

I only made treats for the twins and Josh for the past few years. But this year, we took a baby step back into the mishloach manot game. We didn’t have a theme — for the first time — but we made treats for immediate family, a friend, and Josh’s office. It was weird to open the packaging supplies box, which hadn’t been opened since February 2020. Or pull out ribbon I last saw three years ago.

Happy Purim Monday night to all who celebrate.

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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:

• “In Limbo Once Again: Long COVID This Time” (Silent Sorority)

Okay, now my choices this week.

A Separate Life talks about the blogger’s dilemma: you have so much to say until it’s time to sit down and write. But I snorted at the last line. Well played.

Lastly, Infertile Phoenix connects emotions to the time of year. I love this opening: “I can tell we are on the other side of winter. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still winter. It’s still cold and there is still snow on the ground. But there is less of it. It is melting. In another month or two, it will feel like spring.” Just capturing that knowledge that you’ve turned a corner. Even if you’re still in the middle of things. Again, I love the last line.

The roundup to the Roundup: Happy Purim. 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 February 24 – March 3) 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.

March 3, 2020, was the first time I wrote about COVID. Back then, I didn’t know how much to worry.

It’s hard to gauge how much to worry. I don’t worry about the flu, and the flu is much more widespread. (Though I do get a flu shot yearly, so that may explain why I don’t worry about the flu.)

And I wondered if we may be stuck at home for a week! Or two! I have a note to myself in my bullet journal to purchase lemons in case this ever happens again. Because they last a long time and allow me to make many dishes. I clearly thought that this would be over in a week or two, and maybe we’d have a few years before the next pandemic.

But we’re three years in. And the world has moved on, except when it doesn’t move on. We’ve managed to stay safe by making no concessions with masking and vaccinations, though I no longer believe we’ll be able to dodge this forever, even if we don’t change anything we’re doing.

I guess on Friday, the wheel turns, and the next COVID year starts again.

I love a good chronology game. This one gives you five photos, and you have to guess the year they were taken, going solely on what people are wearing or the cars in the background. You get points depending on how close you are to the true answer. Even when I don’t score high, I enjoy seeing the results when they tell you when each picture was taken.

My high score so far is 1540, which feels low.

How did you do?

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

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While searching for a statistic on websites, I came across this image that shows the most visited website in any country. It’s Amazon in the United States. Reddit for Canada. The BBC in the United Kingdom.

What does that say about us as a country that our most visited site is a shopping site? (Uh… capitalism?) Or Canada that it’s a message board? Or the United Kingdom that it’s a news site?

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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.

I read a really simple but game-changing article on Washington Post (that’s a gift link). It goes through the fact that people are willing to be kind to others in a way that they’re not kind to themselves, and the author suggests that we pause and ask ourselves what we need right now.

My eyes went over the words, backed up, and thought about them. I think many Gen Xers were raised on the messaging that we should suck it up and deal. I say that to myself all the time.

But I tried it the next time I hit a wall. What did I need right now? A cup of tea. A pause to read a chapter in a book. Permission to push something off my calendar. That’s what I needed. So that’s what I gave myself.

It’s a weird feeling — taking care of yourself.