450th Friday Blog Roundup

So… a few months ago, I opened up a contest to have a character named after you in the upcoming book Apart at the Seams.  The contest closed this week and I pulled an entry using the Random Number Generator.

The winner of the Say “I Do” to Measure of Love contest is… #30: Lori!

So when you see her name in the book, you’ll know exactly how it got there.

I mostly want to say an enormous thank you to the 73 entries in the contest.  Each of those felt like a little hug.  I am beyond grateful to all of you for the support with the book, Measure of Love: reading it, tweeting about it, reviewing it, Facebooking it.  Every small thing helps.  It’s just a review or a tweet to you, but it is a huge huge huge thing to me.  So thank you.

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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:

• “We’re Not Just All a Little Bit Racist, We’re Also a Little Bit Hateful” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Cristy
• “The Children I’ve Never Know” (Sydney Morning Herald)
• “The Trouble with (Just) Leaning In” (A Half Baked Life)

Okay, now my choices this week.

My Lady of the Lantern has a tiny post about napping, and I’m highlighting it because she states this truth that I’ve never heard someone say before (and if I had heard it said when I was in the throes of babyhood, it would have saved my sanity).  “Much of the first year of her life, I have waited for Figlia to fall asleep, so that I could x, y or z. Now, I am not so affected by her napping or non-napping. I can engage her in stuff and do some of mine too.”  It’s hard to realize how that will change; that the nap will cease to hold the same importance.  But it will.  So bookmark her post and return to it when you need it.

The Destiny Manifest has a beautiful post on the anniversary of their daughter’s birth and death.  On what should have been her first birthday, a mother reflects on the first year after the loss of her daughter.  And what could have been a day when she felt completely alone, a network of friends came out to light candles, release balloons, and remember with her.  She writes, “It makes my heart sing to feel so much love from friends I’ve never met face to face. I read so many caring messages and saved so many pictures, and every one of them lifted my spirits and made me feel so much better.”  It’s really a post about the power of togetherness.

Lastly, Stupid Broken Eggs has a powerful post about how our words are sometimes read (and affect) another person.  Reading a discussion on an open forum about another person’s weight gain, she points out how her own body changes are tied to stress, and perhaps instead of judging, those people could reach out to the person in question and ask them if everything is okay.  She refrains from joining the conversation: “I don’t need to be jumping into a pot of boiling water head first and full of progesterone and steroids… that’s a recipe for disaster I do believe.”  But her words are just as powerful here, and what comes next in the post is beautiful moment between friends.

The roundup to the Roundup: Winner of the contest. And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between June 28th and July 5th) 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.