Um, I LOVE this. If I ever posted anything to Instagram, I would totally do Faceless Friday. I mean, yes, it started as a creative project to capture all the beauty that exists outside of the face, but it’s also inadvertently a way to give kids privacy.

We never post pictures of the twins’ faces because we wanted to leave the decision to be up on the internet in their hands. We’re glad we did because as they’ve grown up, they’ve been able to express to us that they don’t want to be online. But this project is a perfect way to share an image and capture a life while giving the child the ability to choose differently in the future.

Plus every image in that feed feels like it’s on the brink of telling a story.

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she read that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better about doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from January.

All of Us Villains (Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman): Hunger Games with magic and no main character (so you have no clue who will win) — that is how I keep describing this book. It also isn’t as bleak as the Hunger Games. The sequel is coming out next year, but it’s totally worth reading this first book now.

The Club (Ellery Lloyd): All of the pleasure of White Lotus without the stomach-turning close-ups. (Anyone who has seen the show knows exactly what I mean.) It’s terrible rich people at a terrible rich-person resort doing terrible-rich person things. I devoured it. Lots and lots of twists.

Taste (Stanley Tucci): So… this is a bit of a mixed bag. I loved the book while we were listening to it. He is a fantastic narrator, the stories were entertaining, and he made me want to eat. Constantly. After finishing the book, my cousin told me something that made me see the stories in a completely different (not very good) way. So take this audio book a little like Instagram; enjoyable to look at as long as you remember that there are piles of dirty laundry out of the frame.

The Maid (Nita Prose): I liked this book. It isn’t much of a mystery; you kind of know everything super quickly, and the one “twist” wasn’t much of a twist. So don’t go into it thinking you’ll get a mystery. You’ll get a character sketch. If you like the character, you’ll probably be happy with the story. (That was how I felt.) If you don’t like the character, there isn’t much else there.

What did you read last month?

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

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Every year at my elementary school, they would put an enormous “mailbox” in the front hall, and people could drop in Valentines that were meant for a person outside of their class. In other words, you went around the class putting your cards in your classmate’s box. But if you were in third grade and you wanted to send a card to a fourth grader, you dropped it in the mailbox. I have no memory who delivered the out-of-class cards.

All I remember was that it was the most exciting day of the year. The mere chance that a kid outside your classroom liked you enough to fill out a card and drop it in the box… FOR YOU.

I hope you get an out-of-class Valentine-like happy experience today.

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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.

I’ve always loved kintsugi — the Japanese art of repairing objects by mending them lacquer that contains gold or silver. A broken bowl comes back together, crossed with beautiful lines.

I recently learned about visible mending, the act of repairing holes in clothing so they can continue to be of use, but making the repairs visible. The mending speaks volumes: “This item is so loved that it was fixed instead of tossed aside.”

It feels like a good metaphor for living life. For making the most out of crappy situations and brokenness. But doing so openly; in full admittance that life is not Instagram. Even though visible mending is well represented on Instagram.

I have a pair of yoga pants with an enormous hole in the knee. I’ve continued to wear them, and the hole has grown bigger and bigger. I wish I had found this earlier when the hole was still a tiny patch of thinned fabric. But doing this is kind of a Valentine to your favourite things.

I have the saddest discontinued product story. I once bought a box of Wilhelmina mints on impulse when we were checking out of Trader Joe’s, simply because it had a picture of Queen Wilhelmina on the box, and I thought the ChickieNob would like it. Fast forward to today, and all four of us are addicted to these mints. We go through so many boxes per month.

We were running low, so Josh and I ran out to Trader Joe’s where there were zero boxes in stock. Panicking, we went home and looked online to see if we could order them. There were two versions — a blue box that is not vegan and a white box that is vegan. We ordered 12 of the white boxes and waited for our shipment of mints. Crisis averted.

OR SO WE THOUGHT.

The box arrived filled with the non-vegan version. We were able to get our money refunded, but poking around the internet, we discovered that our mint has been discontinued. They’re still making the non-vegan version with gelatin, but they are no longer making the kind stamped vegan.

It’s a heart breaker.

We’re currently sampling vegan mints from various stores, trying to find one that makes us happy. Perhaps not as happy as the vegan Wilhelminas but happy enough. The candy world is a hard space for vegans.

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Speaking of creating things, Life from Scratch is still on sale. Just 99 cents. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your neighbours. Buy a copy for everyone you know and love.

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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 has a story about her recent mammogram. (Asking a fantastic question: “Why must everything women’s health be squashing and poking and stretching and undignified?“) But moreover, it was a great moment where a conversation that could have gone sideways stayed on course and the technician said (or didn’t say) all the right things. Here’s to good mammograms. (Or, at the very least, not bad mammograms.)

Infertile Phoenix rested in January. She writes: “Who cares, I keep reminding myself. It’s a pandemic. It’s burnout. It’s existential fatigue. Who cares about my made up plans for myself. There is no To Do list police.” She is still processing her CNBC story, and it’s a good life, she reminds herself. I liked this quiet, snowy post.

Lastly, the pandemic has gotten us thinking about our social networks. The Road Less Travelled loops through this topic, too, pointing out that even having family nearby doesn’t necessarily buffer you completely. COVID has interrupted our social lives and all the channels we would have tried to make connections. It’s an interesting topic, and everyone has a slightly different take as they look at their surroundings.

The roundup to the Roundup: No more mints. Life from Scratch is on sale. 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 4 – 11) 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.