512th Friday Blog Roundup

I posted about this on Twitter and Facebook because it has been on my mind lately.  Most of the twins’ friends are out of car seats.  My kids are still in boosters and will be for a long time because the recommendation (well, it ranges between recommendation and law depending on where you live) is 4 feet 9 inches or between 80 – 100 pounds.  My kids are nowhere near those stats.

It is — of course — a social minefield with other kids (mostly because kids need to find something to tease every other kid about — if it wasn’t their size, it would be their name or how they walk or what they bring for lunch): being the smallest kids in the class.  They’re not, there are a few kids smaller than they are, but they’re amongst the smallest.

This isn’t really something that concerns me deeply.  As I said, if it wasn’t their size, kids would find something else to tease them about.  I care a lot more about their safety than I do about wrapping them in virtual cotton balls so their feelings never get hurt.

But it made me think about this boy from childhood whom all the other boys called Smurf.  It had clearly bothered him a lot.

I ended up Googling him just to check that he turned out okay.  While it’s hard to really know much from a picture or two, he seems to have a great job and live in a fun place and every photograph shows him with a huge smile.

So I’m going to go with the assumption that all will be fine for the twins too.  Even if they are sort of smurfy right now.

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Yes, this is your weekly reminder to back up your blog, social media accounts, and email.

And a specific one if you use Apple products: back up your devices BEFORE you download the new iOS!

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 in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

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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:

• “Introducting the New to the Old” (Bits and Peaces)
• “One Year of Autism” (The Adventures of Chicken and Ham)
• “Exhausted” (Handpicked Miracle)
• “The Arrival of Lilah and Olivia Rapp” (Searching for Our Silver Lining)
• “Customers or Patients? What Happens When Doctors See Markets Not People” (Silent Sorority)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Outlandish Notions has a post about writing under a pseudonym, but moreover, how her pseudonym is as much a part of her as she gave part of herself to become the name.  Two lines drew me in: (1) “There’s no way, I think,  for any single voice to represent all of a person. We cannot translate ourselves onto the screen as whole, complete beings.” and (2) “This space is nominally mine, but without you, it would be bare and sterile.”  Both an important reminder that no one can contain their whole self on the screen as well as the fact that we all play a role in the life of a blog.

Family Rocks: The Life of Peg has a post about perspective; both the good and bad that came from losing her sister.  The post is breathtaking; as in, it literally took my breath away as I read it.  Her world shifted, and she writes of how she used to see things and how she sees them now.  She writes, “I am a different person due to the accident.  Some good.   Some hard to handle.”  I am so glad she wrote this post and helped me understand her world.

Lastly, it was likely to happen if I’m hosting and reading #MicroblogMondays, but I once again have several I’d like to highlight.  Constant in the Darkness has “Understanding” which blew me away.  I had chills down my arms.  Invincible Spring has the sobering “Family of Four” about the invisibility of loss.  And “The Epiphany” by Serenity Now (the last microblog in that space!) gave me a lot to think about.

The roundup to the Roundup: My kids will never be out of their booster seat.  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 September 12th and 19th) 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.