The kids are both home — hooray! And I realized something brilliant this week. There are eight nights of Chanukkah, and with four people in the family, we each get to light twice. In the past, we’ve always repeated the same order, so whoever lights the first night also lights the 5th night, etc. Clearly, the best position (if you like lighting candles) would be on the 4th and 8th nights because you get the most candles.

BUT.

If you reverse the order on the back half of the holiday, everyone gets to light nine candles:

First night + eighth night = 9
Second night + seventh night = 9
Third night + sixth night = 9
Fourth night + fifth night = 9

I was this many years old when I realized that. So now everyone lights the same number of candles. Thanks, math.

*******

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.

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.

The Road Less Travelled writes about the gut punch of learning someone has died, in this case, a friend of 41 years. She writes: “Hug the people you love. Make that phone call, send that email, arrange that lunch date.  Life is short, and tomorrow is not promised.” Sending a big hug after reading this beautiful tribute.

Lastly, All & Sundry writes about realizing you’re living a better life. I love this part so much: “How I did not realize just how much better my life could be. I was so afraid to leave the comfort I had, I didn’t know it was like riding wrong in the saddle. You think it’s fine until you feel something better, and then that just blows your whole world wide open.” So much of life is having the courage to make a change and see if something can be even better than what you have now.

The roundup to the Roundup: Thanks, math. 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 12 – 19) 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 local school system put out a video for “67 Day” (of course, they did), with children doing the hand gesture and then jumping into activities centered on the number 67.

And there was one question I loved:

Would you rather read 67 pages of your favourite book or 67 pages of a new book?

Meaning, you don’t have to commit to the whole story, but you can have 67 pages you know will be enjoyable (favourite book), or bet on 67 pages that could become your new favourite book because they are mind-blowingly good. Or maybe terrible?

I would opt for 67 pages of my favourite book because I’m not big into gambling. I’d rather know what I’m going to get. What about you?

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 reads that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better at 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 November.

A Beginner’s Guide to Dying (Simon Boas): I don’t read a lot of nonfiction, but there was a book that kept popping up on “best of” lists, and when it came in at the library, I decided to check out the short audio book. I liked that this book started by pointing out that every single person on earth is a beginner in their own death. We never get to become an expert on our own dying because we only do it once. That quirky truth is a good example of what you’ll find in this lovely, helpful book: a bit of humour, a bit of profound knowledge, a bit of useful advice. It’s less a book about dying and more a book about living. I am so glad I read it.

The Secret Commonwealth (Philip Pullman): This was my first time reading this book as part of my massive re-read of His Dark Materials before the release of the final book. This is the rare series where each book gets progressively better with each book, and this book, the 9th in the series, is the best one yet.

Other People’s Houses (Clare Mackintosh): Mackintosh is one of my favourite writers, and I always enjoy spending time with Ffion. This was a great thriller, and I liked it as much as I liked the first book in the series. I hope she brings Ffion back for a fourth book (especially after that cliffhanger ending), though really looking forward to a standalone thriller from Mackintosh this spring.

The Queen Who Came in From the Cold (SJ Bennett): As always, SJ Bennett is an absolute treasure, and I hope she writes many many many more of these books. They’re fun, enlightening, clever. I love the note at the end over what was real, what was invented, and what was borrowed and twisted. Clever, clever, clever x 1000.

The Impossible Fortune (Richard Osman): It has gotten to the point where I should just give Osman books five stars from the get-go because they are always five stars. Even the acknowledgments page was five stars. I loved the twists in this book. That’s all I’ll say.

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.

*******

I have a new game I love called AITA Guesser. Every day, it pulls three real AITA situations from Reddit, and you have to guess how people voted. So you’re not voting whether YOU think the person is an asshole. You’re voting on what you think other people think about the person. Or sometimes I guess what I would have voted if I had encountered this situation and see whether I align with the majority.

I’m enjoying this game so much in a way that I’m never drawn to actually reading or voting in AITA posts. I guess it’s the difference between seeing whether I’m right or wrong vs. giving feedback to a stranger.

*******

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.

This sounds like the ideal retreat (for me). Manor house. Check. Everyone is on board with silent reading time. Check. Talking about books. Check. Lack of pressure to do anything more than read? Check. Check. Check.

Actually, it sounds like they took walks, listened to stories, and played games. So minimal pressure to do anything else, but those other things all sound like things I’d like to do, too.

I would want to do it with people I know, but I could also be happy doing it with a group of strangers in an awesome space. There’s a part of me that would feel a bit guilty — I traveled so far to do something I could do by myself at home? But I think it would make me happy.

Would you want to go?