This wins for best dek of August (and maybe all time): “If you knew the birth date, time, and place of your soul mate, how far would you go to find them?”

Followed by this line: “Floaty-scarved wingnut astrology lady or not, Stephanie Jourdan suddenly had my full attention.”

It is a fantastic set up for a story, but the punchline at the end is what makes it really perfect. Please don’t skip ahead to it. Let the story unfold from beginning to end. (Or, beginning to end of excerpt.)

I need to read this book.

So how far would you go to meet your soul mate if you knew the birthday and birthplace of your soul mate?

A made a thought-provoking comment on this post about photos:

“I look at my mom’s scrapbooks with photos and stories, and I love them, but they’re not comprehensive. It was a special occasion only thing, because film and development wasn’t free. I have a lot of great pictures of everyday things that are, to me, more valuable than my vacation pictures.”

It’s true — the candid, non-posed, I’m-so-glad-I-captured-that-moment mean more to me than the posed pictures taken at events. They may be blurry or off-center; people may be looking somewhere else or have their eyes closed in silent laughter. Some of those have happened on trips, and I can think of one that came at an event. (I snapped a picture of the twins dancing with each other at the end of their B’nai Mitzvah.) But for the most part, it’s the photos from everyday life I would miss more than the thousands I take so I don’t forget a trip or event that mean more to me.

What about you?

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

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There is only one Wordle, but there are 439 Wordle-like games on this list.

It’s so funny because my friend and I were playing Wordle before it hit the mainstream, and at that time, we kept looking for other games like Wordle. “Why aren’t there any other games like Wordle?” we lamented back and forth in email. “We only get one Wordle puzzle per day — what do we do with the rest of the time?”

The answer is now here in the form of 439 other games.

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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 that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Many years ago, I went to Shepherdstown, WV for the first time. When we got out of the car and looked around, I remarked that it was as if they made a town just for me. Teahouse? Check. Coffeehouse? Check. Bookstore, movie theater, great restaurants, nearby river, sundial? Check, check, check.

The town has changed a lot over the years and lost a few things that we loved during that first visit — teahouse, toy store, and many restaurants — but I never forgot that feeling of stepping out of a car and feeling like a place was designed solely to be filled with my favourite things. Even if I knew it was just a happy accident.

I recently thought the same thing as I was reading a book series — Death and Croissants by Ian Moore. It’s not just that I like the books. It’s that it feels like the books were made solely to make me happy. To appeal to all the things I love. Which, again, is a happy accident because I don’t know the author.

It’s hard to pinpoint how it is fine-tuned to appeal to my tastes. It just hits this perfect note, and I fall into such a happy space reading the books.

The last time I felt this way was the first time I read The Magicians by Lev Grossman. It feels special to feel it again.

I spent the first day of school crying on and off. I cried hard when the kids left the house. Cried harder once Josh left, and I was alone. And then cried whenever I thought about the fact that it was the last first day. I cleaned my face before they came home.

Josh and I made a digital album of all of the first days and gave it to the twins the day before, so I only had one photo to slip in on the actual first day and then zero distractions.

I read a bunch of very mature social media posts from people talking about how they’ll miss their child, but they are ready and their child is ready to spread their wings and fly. You will not read anything like that here. I am a mess. I will be a mess this year. I realized this week that I’m not really interested in not being a mess because… that is who I am. And to change how I feel is to change who I am at the core. To pretend that a different way of being is somehow “better” when it is just… different.

So expect zero maturity. Zero ability to bask serenely while the twins go off into the world. You will read no advice on how to let go gracefully. My only goals this year are to try to be in the moment and not cry in front of them. If I succeed even partway, I’m calling it a win.

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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.

Finding a Different Path admits sadness bubbles up sometimes. She returns from celebrating her grandmother’s 85th birthday and thinks, “I am so grateful for the life that we live, but it doesn’t erase that when we turn 85 (hopefully), there will be no giant picture of all the descendants. Because there will be no descendants. There will be no family to throw a party and make a speech about the impact our lives have had on the family.” It is a post about being happy with life while still acknowledging the losses we carry with us, and how those two realities exist at the same time, neither one negating the other.

Lastly, one of the nicest things about blogs is that wealth of community wisdom. No Kidding in NZ pulls together a post of it. She looks back on comments from healing posts, giving the reader a 360 view of wisdom between the original post and the comments on it. It’s a fantastic idea.

The roundup to the Roundup: Hard first week. 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 26 – September 2) 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.