555th Friday Blog Roundup
This is it. Last day to get Life from Scratch for 99 cents. Measure of Love is also on sale. (I believe on all platforms.) Please help me spread word.
Please Tweet about it. Or throw up the announcement on Facebook. Or email a friend about the sale. Or buy a copy for a friend and send it to them. Or Pin the book cover. Or… Instagram yourself reading the book… I will be eternally grateful.
*******
How am I wasting time now? With the app WordBubbles. I am really not digging this new trend to offer the removal of ads as an in-app purchase (vs. offering a free and paid version of the same app with ads or no ads), so I haven’t yet removed the ads. But I am on level 111. And I like that you get a daily puzzle, to boot.
The game makes me feel smarter than I actually am.
*******
I found this explanation from author Robert Munsch of Love You Forever to be very moving.
I made that up after my wife and I had two babies born dead. The song was my song to my dead babies. For a long time I had it in my head and I couldn’t even sing it because every time I tried to sing it I cried. It was very strange having a song in my head that I couldn’t sing.
I’ll never read the story the same way again, and I’m so grateful that he shared that story.
*******
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 in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.
*******
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:
- “A Note to Self” (Infertilityhonesty)
- “An Open Letter to My Fertile Family” (Waiting for Baby Bird)
Okay, now my choices this week.
Lavender Luz has another installment of her adoption advice column, and I thought addressing the adopt-a-baby-fast mentality was of utmost importance. Without shaming the asker, she points out the problems inherent in this mindset, especially in doing what is best for the child. I especially loved the wedding/marriage analogy.
It Is What It Is has a picture post that packs a punch. (So much so that I need to write with alliteration.) With a single image, she speaks volumes.
Inconceivable has a gorgeous post about parenting after a loss, marking the moment of a first unbirthday. I started to highlight the sentences that made me catch my breath, but really, it’s the whole thing. It’s the whole, brief, beautiful post.
Lastly, Mom, Eventually has a post about fighting to find happiness. I love when she explains, “My happiness is like a house of cards – so hard to build and yet so fragile and quick to fall down.” I think this post will resonate with a lot of people.
The roundup to the Roundup: Please help me promote the Life from Scratch sale. Waste time with WordBubble. The real story behind Love You Forever. 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 July 17th and 24th) 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.
10 comments
I never knew that about “love you forever” but I couldn’t read it without crying already…. now it will be worse.
That book actually creeped me out and I threw it away when my son got it at a book swap at school. Reminded me too much of my overbearing mother-in-law who will not leave us alone. The context about the origin of the book does change my perspective, I guess.
This post asking hard questions about having a second child took my breath away: https://beyondtheparentheses.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/strokes/
I loved that book then, and my love only intensified when I read Robert Munsch’s inner thoughts. I recall also hearing a recording of his version of the song.
I also get Ana’s point. The song can seem a bit like an Old Spice commercial. Love those.
Thanks for including me in the Roundup. Love you forever.
I actually wouldn’t read Love You Forever to my sons until I read that explanation by the author somewhere. (I found the part where the mother sneaks into her grown son’s house while he’s sleeping creepy.)
Interestingly, since I first read it to my now 3.5-year-old sons, it has become one of their most often requested books.
Thanks for the shout out, Stirrup Queens! I’m new to this whole blogging thing and I’m loving the sense of community. It’s making me feel like I’ve got more warriors on my side in my fight for happiness 😉 Happy Friday everyone!
Love the book and enjoy giving it as a gift. I’ve had many friends and family later say it was their favorite book to read to their child. Recently, one friend told me it was her favorite book that her mother read to her. She was so happy to have a copy for her son.
I did not know the author’s back story. Thank you for sharing. It take the beauty of the book to the next level. Thankful through his grief that he was able to share this gift of love through a story.
I only know the book from US TV shows. Interesting how many “much-loved books” you’ve talked about that haven’t made the crossover to NZ. (Velveteen Rabbit – or something like that? – is another one blogging friends have talked about that I’ve never seen here.)
I have to give a shout out to Pamela’s post about ethics and the fertility industry. She’s been talking and writing about this for years now, often unjustly criticised for her views, and finally it seems that the industry itself is raising some of these issues.
She links to an amazing interview with a bioethicist that is well worth reading, regardless of where you are in the infertility journey.
http://blog.silentsorority.com/bioethicists-in-u-s-and-australia-call-for-fertility-industry-regulation-more-transparency/
Ahhhh…I ordered that book on Amazon after your post. I can’t get thru reading it to my kids without crying. With me being an older mom and losing my dad this year (I couldn’t exactly carry him, but still) it really brought on the tears. I can’t even think of the picture of the man rocking his mother without crying.
CBC did a “Life & Times” episode on Robert Munsch (kind of like A&E’s old “Biography” series) where he talked about his stillborn children & “Love You Forever.” He even sang the song. There is an annual book/literacy festival in Toronto called “Word on the Street” and dh & I went one year when Munsch was performing at one of the stages. He told several stories & finished off with “Love You Forever.” It was actually quite funny, because he acted out the rocking back & forth, etc., but I don’t think there was an adult in the audience with dry eyes at the end.