It occurred to me this week that if we were about to celebrate our 25th anniversary, and I met Josh when I was 25, and we dated for a while before getting married, that at some point in the past year or so, I moved over the boundary between being together with Josh longer than not being together with Josh.

There’s a line I love in One Day that goes:

“Finally, she loved someone and felt fairly confident that she was loved in return. If someone asked Emma, as they sometimes did at parties, how she and her husband had met, she told them: ‘We grew up together.” (p. 239)

It can, of course, be taken in two different ways. The casual meaning implies that they have known each other since childhood. They grew up in the same town or went to the same school.

But there is another meaning, the one that is clear to the book reader. They had to figure out this whole growing-up thing, and they figured it out together. They had ups and downs since college, highs and lows, wins and losses, and they put it all together into a whole truth: They both emotionally grew over the many years they were together. And they couldn’t have done it with this particular result without the other one.

That’s how I feel about Josh. We met each other when we were fairly young, just figuring things out in new adulthood. And we grew up together.

I feel so lucky that I got to step over that line and have him in my life longer than without. Here’s to making this new side, this with side, infinitely wide.

Remember how I told you that Quentin was burying and urinating on the pea flakes to show me how much he hated them, and then he was grudgingly taking them and unenthusiastically eating them? He has catapulted past gusto into frenzy.

He now stands and watches me move through the room (it’s a little unnerving, to be honest), and if I go anywhere near him, he starts wheeking frantically and will not stop until he gets multiple pea flakes.

I know it’s what I wanted, but now he cannot calm down enough to learn a trick. He is so focused on the pea flakes that he won’t perform any action beyond shrieking for pea flakes. Maybe this is another stage? And he’ll get through this and then calmly consume pea flakes?

On the flip side, at least we know we’ll be able to get rid of 8 ounces of treats.

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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.

And now the blogs…

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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.

Scientist on the Roof writes about a parenting fail. After going through middle school with two kids, she finds that she knows enough by now to know what she can skip. But everything is shiny and new for her child, so she has to go through things a third time. It’s hard to be the youngest kid.

Lastly, Infertile Phoenix captures within the personal what so many people are feeling collectively; there is too much upheaval. She is going through too much change, too much uncertainty, too many unknowns, and without the cushion of feeling stable, she can’t catch her breath. She writes about her last move, “I already knew it was going to be hard. I didn’t need to know how hard it was going to be before it even started.” Send her a big hug.

The roundup to the Roundup: From rejection to obsession, a guinea pig’s tale. 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 March 20 – March 27) 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.

I read a fascinating article on the BBC about delivery people who serve almost as default social workers, checking in on people as they bring yogurt to people’s homes.

On paper they’re delivery workers, but in practice they’re part of the country’s informal social safety net. In a country grappling with a rapidly ageing population and a deepening loneliness crisis, Yakult Ladies have become an unlikely source of community, helping to reduce the problem of isolation one drop-off at a time.

It’s not just reducing isolation. They end up being almost a front-line worker:

The maternal figures offer a friendly face, weekly check-ins and, for many older residents, a lifeline of human connection. They also notice subtle changes in a customer’s routine. If someone fails to answer the door, they may alert family members or seek assistance.

I think about how different it is here, where items are often left outside and the delivery person texts to let you know it’s at the door. I love this idea of people keeping the same routine, the same houses, year after year. Having the exchange be a societal check:

Are you okay?

I’m okay.

It took five days, but he is now grudgingly eating the pea flakes. He has silently promised me that he will never, ever perform a trick for one, but he will take it in his mouth and chew it instead of dropping it on the ground. It’s a small step forward in getting rid of 8 ounces of pea flakes.

The first time I tried licorice as a kid, I didn’t like it. I don’t know if I actually didn’t like it, or if I heard enough people say that they didn’t like it that I decided that I needed to dislike it, too. But soon after, I decided it was one of my favourite flavours. And to this day, I save my licorice jelly beans for last.

I am hoping that Quentin’s pea flake journey will take a similar route. From dislike to tentative curiosity to gusto.

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

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I have a game… of course, I have a game. I always have a game. But this game has a lot of replay.

With Habitat, you get a tiny land with trees, wheat, and bear-like animals. The job is to build houses from the trees, grow food to support the people in the houses, and keep your resources plentiful without depleting the land.

It took me three tries, but I entered an endless mode where I had all elements in optimal balance. It’s a fun game to pick up for a few minutes while you’re waiting for the water to boil.

Enjoy!

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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.