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

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Our school district set thresholds for when it would move to virtual school for two weeks. On the second day back, 59.8% of schools hit the threshold. But we didn’t enter virtual school. Instead, we entered a state of chaos, with thousands of people yelling at each other online and through virtual town meetings.

I sat through part of one of the town meetings, eating a bowl of Chex, when I realized that no one was responding to any of the speakers. I was literally just hearing people say the things they were already saying in all-caps on social media. And then the host would thank them for speaking and call on the next person.

I’m at a loss on how to move forward. And amid the explosion of text messages dissecting the latest school email, the ChickieNob said, “Did you hear about the new variant found in Cyprus?” My heart sounds really loud in my chest right now.

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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.

On January 1st, we decided to watch the Harry Potter special on HBO as a family. Harry Potter is kind of our thing — not just the books but the movies, too. Josh and I went to the first movie the day before our wedding, and every other movie on opening night. We visited the set outside London for almost 8 hours. I have Ravenclaw robes hanging in my closet.

It should have been a simple decision. We like Harry Potter + we like the movies = watch the special. But, of course, the words of JK Rowling hover over everything, which means that it went from being a simple pleasure to being a complicated pleasure. One that requires discussion before enjoying. Or not enjoying.

The reality is that before the advent of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, probably every artist I liked — and, if we’re being honest, probably every non-artist friend or family member — has had views I’ve disagreed with. I just didn’t know about most of them. I mean, I knew when they shared their views or supported a candidate I didn’t like or gave donations to organizations that do work that negate my existence. But unless their action or words bubbled to the top of the newspaper or a magazine article, I usually didn’t know. But now we know everything. About everyone. Or, at least, we think we do.

So we had a spirited discussion about whether her hurtful, dangerous words on one topic canceled out all of the helpful, supportive thoughts on other topics. Whether Harry Potter was larger than the creator at this point. Should Quidditch change its name. Big questions for what amounts to something that is entertainment for some and life changing for others.

Maybe that was the tipping point. Life changing. We’ve built multiple vacations around these books; taken the kids through London to look for the Ministry of Magic and rode the Hogwarts Express over the aqueduct in Scotland. I read all seven books aloud, my arms wrapped around them during hard scenes. I take to heart Daniel Radcliffe’s words on his Trevor Project letter: “I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you.”

As a Jewish woman, I had to make peace with a complicated reality to read Agatha Christie or teach Knut Hamsun. Life has a way of forcing us to make those decisions over and over again. Some things or people or places make the cut. Others do not. And it’s often personal and inexplicable, even if it makes sense in your own heart.

Yesterday was Befana Day, and it was pretty much what you’d expect for a COVID-era Befana Day. I managed to botch the surprise gift by accidentally leaving it out the week before. And I didn’t read the recipe I wanted to make until 5:30 pm when I discovered the potatoes would take 2.5 hours. So…

But we all rolled with it.

Because that’s all you can do during pandemic holidays. They are what they are.

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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:

• “Loving My Body Again” (Finding a Different Path)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Jewish IVF says goodbye to 2021. She sums up my feelings, too: “In some ways this feels worse. A year ago we had hope. Hope that a vaccine will be the magic cure that we need to end the pandemic.” It feels like everything has been ten times harder lately. High case loads = anxiety = a wish we could grab some hope again.

Bereaved and Blessed posts her answers to Rewind 2021. It’s such a cool project, and it’s so nice to have that time capsule of words. It is long — 35 questions — capturing the highs and lows (and the everyday moments) of a year.

Lastly, the Uterus Monologues has a moving guest post about miscarrying at Christmas. The deep truth: “One of the challenges of uncertainty is that people try to cling to the flicker of hope. We are so ill-equipped to accept sadness and grief.” It’s such an important read; a good reminder that we often don’t know how our questions will land.

The roundup to the Roundup: Befana Day 2021. 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 31 – January 7) 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 thought they heard Beorn give a pain wheek a few weeks ago, so I called the vet and asked if we could have an appointment to check for kidney stones. I may be a little neurotic after Linus.

The vet couldn’t in good faith give me an emergency appointment for one pain wheek, especially when Beorn was popcorning around during the phone call and begging for food, but he did fit him in for a normal appointment three weeks later.

Beorn’s first vet visit.

It was also my first time back to the vet since we went to pick up Linus’s paw prints. I was fine until we pulled into a parking spot and waited for the vet to come out and retrieve Beorn. It would be his first time with a stranger; the first time with another person out of my sight because I had to wait outside.

Waiting stoically to go into the vet’s office

I cried. He did fine. Nothing was wrong. He gave me side eye when he returned to the car.

“You really dragged me out here because of one wheek?”

All is well that ends well.

But it should have been Linus’s birthday this week.

It may or may not be International Blog Delurking Week. The first full week of January (January 2 – 8, 2022) is when we’re supposed to slither out of the reading closet and check in with an “I’m here” comment. I’m not sure if anyone does this anymore. Back in the olden days, people would pop up out of the woodwork. Nowadays, not so much.

So let’s see what happens.

So welcome to International Blog Delurking Week. I make a badge every year to mark the occasion, and I give you full permission to right click and grab it for your very own.

My reward for remembering to do this (when I could have just as easily forgotten) is that you have to delurk for this worldwide holiday, which is super serious and important. Right?

It is fairly easy. Leave a comment in the comment section below admitting that you’re here. You can simply raise your hand and meekly admit that you’re here with a simple, one-word “here” comment; or you can proudly raise your hand and tell us all a bit about yourself (my preferred method); or you can tell me the last good book you read (see, I’m trying to make it easy for you by even providing a comment prompt). The point is that I want to know about the people who read me, since there is a huge discrepancy between the number of readers in actuality and the number of readers I actually know are reading. Or a tongue-twister like that.

And that’s all you have to do to celebrate.

So (clears throat to nudge you along), who is here?