487th Friday Blog Roundup

I have cold medicine brain, that overtired, slow-thinking feeling when your body hasn’t been able to sleep off the residual effects of Benadryl.  I slept enough, but my body doesn’t quite want to release Benadryl’s sweet grip.  So everything is moving somewhat slowly today.

I rarely get ill, but this winter, I’ve been sick at least four times.  I think it’s been five, but I’ve lost count.  So to be conservative, we’ll say four.  This is in addition to throwing out my back.  In other words, I’ve been a hot mess.

It feels like every time I get back up to speed in life, I get sick again.  Which makes me take a step back to tend to my watery eyes and sneezing nose.  Afterward, it takes days to get back up to speed with life and become productive (instead of playing catch-up).  And right when I hit that sweet spot where I feel like everything is back to normal, I get sick again and the cycle begins anew.

This has been the lost winter.  Between snow and illness and death and a host of other shittiness, very little has gotten accomplished.

I’m trying to be okay with the lack of forward movement.  To just sit in the reality of this winter, shrug, and think, “well, maybe spring will be different?”

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On the other hand, my Hay Day farm is chugging along.  I’m about to enter level 46.  Buy the soup kitchen.  I’ve opened up all my fishing holes.  My barn and silo can each hold 650 units.

It’s good to be productive somewhere.

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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:

• “This is Why I Read Your Blog” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Katherine A and Northern Star!
• “Reflections on My Experience of Infertility, Loss, and the ALI Community” (It’s Just a Box of Rain)
• “The Miscarriage Misconception” (Operation: Wife)
• “Melissa’s Story — Baby Abigail, Stillborn at 36 Weeks” (The Lewis Note)
• “3/21” (Invincible Spring)
• “My Life & Middlemarch” (The Road Less Travelled)
• “The No-Baby Boom” (Macleans)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Two community-created/led projects: The Infertility Voice is back up and running with a gorgeous new design and a lot of resources.  You can jump directly to the blog posts, but make sure you take some time to peruse all the links she’s compiled for everything from discount fertility drugs to premature ovarian failure.  And DI Dad is spearheading a very cool, frank discussion on donor conception.  In the vein of Postsecret, DI Dad is asking those in the donor conception community (donors, donor-conceived, and donor-assisted parents) to lay bare their thoughts on donor conception.  Those utilizing donor gametes should check it out.

Res Cogitatae has a post about the figurative ravens on her shoulder: anger and anxiety.  She writes, “That one says more than the other. It is larger, more demanding, harder to shut away. Anger is more prone to unexpected outbursts, croaks responses that lack proportion. Anxiety is softer but more insidious. It has spent more time with me.”  It is a gorgeous, gorgeous post, and Serenity’s comment is equally thought-provoking: “Fear is a misuse of imagination.”

Lastly, With Every Heartbeat has a post about loneliness; about how difficult it is to make friends with other women when all the various friend-making avenues are closed.  I love love love the end of this post.  Love it so much.

The roundup to the Roundup: I’m sick.  Again.  But my Hay Day farm is awesome.  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 21st and March 28th) 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.