420th Friday Blog Roundup
I have become incredibly wimpy about the cold this winter, and it’s only November. I really don’t know what I’m going to do come January when it’s actually freezing outside.
I would much rather spend time outside when it is unbearably hot than when it is even mildly cold. I’m not saying that I enjoy sitting outside in 105-degree heat, but I can handle that better than having to hang around outside when it’s in the low forties.
I don’t know when it changed. I used to walk around Madison, Wisconsin all winter without a coat. WITHOUT A COAT. (Don’t tell my mother.) And now I shiver at the thought of having to get in the car later and drive for three or four minutes without the heat on at full blast until the car warms up.
Obviously, we’d all rather have moderate temperatures, but are you better with high or low temperatures outside?
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The ChickieNob rolled, sat up, crawled, and walked, all in the span of one week. One week very late in her development, but one week nonetheless. She went from nothing to everything exactly when she felt like doing it.
The Wolvog has been online since… birth… but the ChickieNob requested and received her own email account this week. She is an excellent conversationalist online and sends lengthy emails, full of questions and answers. Mostly spelled correctly. The day after setting up her email account, she announced that she was now ready for her own blog. Her brother has had his own url since kindergarten, and she would like her own space. I happened to have an unused url that the Wolvog and I sometimes use as a practice space, so I told her that I’d turn it over to her. A few hours after that, she told me that she now needs to learn how to create an image map in order to build the type of site she wants to create.
The girl does things in her own time.
I obviously fall way on one end of the spectrum on the “should you let your kids go online” debate. They’re online with a safety net; they know that I receive a receipt of every email they send and receive. I have a record of all their passwords and the right to enter their accounts at any time. They are only allowed on sites we’ve approved and bookmarked. The majority of their online time is either communicative (email) or creative (programming) vs. game playing. We talk a lot about Internet safety and privacy. I do this because I want them to be Internet savvy when they’re older and feel comfortable online. Because we’re going to hit a day when it won’t be appropriate for me to receive a receipt of every email, and I want to know that I can trust them (within reason) to comport themselves with circumspect online and get help from an adult when they encounter something that they don’t think (or want) to handle on their own. I hope that if we start now that we’ll set good habits in place. I don’t know if the decisions we’ve made are the best decisions until we hit that sweet spot of retrospect.
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And now the blogs…
But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:
- “Whingy Fertiles” (Look No Tubes)
- “The 10th of December” (Mrs. Spit)
- “Bidding Adieu to Old Friends” (Family Building with a Twist)
- “And Time Goes By So Slowly” (Mummy Play Buttons)
Okay, now my choices this week.
Something Out of Nothing has a poem about the ever-present needle and the various ways it moves the cycle along. It’s an absolutely brilliant movement from the clench to the release; the tension to the hope.
Family Building with a Twist cracked me up with her Mayan Apocalypse Bucket List, mostly because I have December 21st circled on the calendar and it’s my #1 excuse for why we haven’t started the home renovations on the kitchen (new kitchen counters won’t be able to save me when the zombies come). #15 is probably my favourite.
Lastly, Mrs. Spit raises a thought-provoking, emotional question in her post about the ways in which her life still looks the same. She writes, “And at the end of my life, will I be happy? Will I look back at my life and be pleased? They tell me that no one looks back and wishes they worked more, but what else is there for me, a woman with no children? What are my options?” I think the answer lies in the comment section, the point that A makes about the difference we make in the world. And Mrs. Spit has made a difference.
The roundup to the Roundup: I really don’t do well with the cold. G-d help us, the ChickieNob is now online. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between November 23rd and November 30th) 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.
19 comments
I’m always cold, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the coziness of winter – assuming I have a warm blanket, a hot drink, and an even hotter water bottle.
This post both broke my heart and filled it:
http://inthetesseract.blogspot.ch/2012/11/the-wind-in-trees.html
I would rather cold weather then hot weather. I can always put another sweater on or gloves…I can only take off so many clothes in the summer time and have it be allowed by society. 🙂
I’ve been saving this link all week:
http://www.fromiftowhen.com/2012/11/the-scar.html
I’ve been saving a link all week too. “Emotions of a Minute” https://willcarryon.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/emotions-of-a-minute/
I am highly sensitive to temperature changes. If I had to choose between hot and cold, though, I would probably choose cold. I can always add layers and huddle under blankets and sit in front of the woodstove to get warm…but I can only take off so many clothes during the summer and I hate running the tiny AC unit because of $$ concerns. So…easier to get warm than it is to get cooler, imo.
Maybe it’s because I’m a big (read: fat) girl, but I am almost always hot, and it makes summer miserable for me. Winter is so much more comfortable for me… I can live comfortably within my own skin. Not that I like winter… I have a ridiculous fear of falling and icy sidewalks make my heart pound. Give me spring and autumn any day of the week.
I like cold because I am a huge fan of cashmere sweaters. And warm socks. And my boots. But I have poor circulation, so by February, I’m ready for hot and flip flops and shorts. So, what I’m saying is, I like variety.
Your kids crack me up. Our girl goes online to play games, but she’s not an addict.
I don’t like when it’s either too hot or too cold. But I grew up on the Canadian Prairies — so believe me, I know cold, lol. As we like to joke, “it’s a DRY cold.” It does make a difference. Having suffered through almost 30 damp, bone-chilling, grey, slushy southern Ontario winters now — where it snows, turns to freezing rain & then freezes over & makes everything treacherous — I will take the Prairie winter (almost) any day. As I have often told people, “It may be -40, but (more often than not) the sun will be shining!” I miss the sound of snow crunching & even squeaking under my boots.
I don’t particularly like southern Ontario’s humid summers either. It can be very humid on the Prairies in the summer too, but more often than not, it will cool off enough at night that we can sleep with the windows open. No such luck in Toronto. :p
(That said — fall in Ontario is generally SPECTACULAR.) ; )
When we lived in Wisconsin I dreaded the cold but after 12 years of living in New Mexico/Texas I absolutely HATE hot weather. I would sooner freeze to death at this point then suffer another unbearable summer where I feel like my flesh is melting off my body.
I would MUCH rather be hot than cold. There is something easier about cooling oneself down that heating oneself up. And, there is often a dampness with the cold that isn’t present with the heat. So, sister, I don’t know how you do it. I slept out in a parking lot once to get Howard Stern’s autograph on his Private Parts book. It was 37 degrees overnight and I have never been that cold for that long again.
Thanks, Mel! I just read this post from ksirahsirah about a bittersweet anniversary:
http://ksirahsirah.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/two-years-ago-today/
Going to bed with a heating pad…ya, I’m that much of a wimp. Oh, did I mention I’m in California?!
Speaking of freezing…New here…my first comment and my first shameless plug. After our last failed IVF, egg freezing has been on the brain. Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda!
http://www.yo-yo-mama.com/2012/11/psa-freeze-your-eggs.html?m=1
I much prefer the cold, but then again my concept of cold is probably a little warped. I live in Florida so the coldest it gets is 40 something. I’d much rather that than the 90+ degrees with 99% humidity we have in the summer. Starting to sweat before you even check the mail is no fun!
I much prefer cold, as does my husband. And it was -40 C here the other day, so we’re good right now. 😉 Husband likes to say that you can always add another layer to keep warm but at some point you can’t take any more off!
I much prefer cold. And although I’ve lived in the southern hemisphere for over 15 years*, I will NEVER grow accustomed to a summer Christmas.
*Wow, I must be old!
Mrs. Spit contemplates life and grief while baking bread: http://mrsspit.ca/?p=3975
https://www.stirrup-queens.com/2012/12/our-invisible-travel-companion/
http://bythebrooke.blogspot.com/2012/12/sparkle-and-fade.html
This may be slightly outside the prescribed timeline, but I saw this today & thought it was timely & expresses so well what so many of us are thinking & feeling after hearing the big news this week:
http://www.mamamia.com.au/social/kate-middleton-pregnant-bec-sparrow/