626th Friday Blog Roundup

In the vein of last minute Christmas ideas — an activity and a stocking stuffer.  Actually, those would be two last minute Christmas ideas because the activity is not the stocking stuffer.

Anyway.

We participated this year in a really fun idea called Cookies for Cops.  It’s a program through MADD where local families bake cookies for police departments around the area.  I have a fantastic friend who arranged for all of us to drop off our cookies at her house, and she delivered them for us.  If you Google “MADD Cookies for Cops,” you can see if they’re holding a program in your area.  And if not, start one because you get the fun of baking and then other people get the fun of eating.

Speaking of baking, my silicone spatula broke while making muffins.  This is the second time the clear handle has snapped in half, so when I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, I decided to get a different brand.  I ended up with a blue Core Kitchen spatula, and I love this thing so much that it makes my heart hurt.  For some reason, it’s not on the store’s website, but I did find it on this one.  There are huge display cases of them in-store by the baking aisle.  It’s really heavy and sturdy.  Even my muffin batter can’t break it.  I think.

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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.

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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:

• “Beginnings, Endings, and Messy Stuff in the Middle” (Torthúil)

Okay, now my choices this week.

IF Pomegranate has two posts: one about waiting and then the followup after the phone call musing on a future conversation with her sister about egg donation.  It’s all the considerations that the average person doesn’t think about such as the risk to the egg donor and genetic links.  I empathized with the first post, and I was glad she received the phone call with the second.

The Road Less Travelled has a post about the Syrian refugee family that has moved in across the street from her parents’ house, watching them as they experience snow (perhaps for the first time).  In a week when Monday was filled with bad news from the Electoral College vote, it was sweet to encounter this story of a Canadian Christmas scene.

Anabegins returns with an update.  I love the magic of the RSS feed reader that always lets you know when someone has popped back up.  She ends the post with a sentiment that I feel, too: “I wish I could feel hopeful that next year will be better — and the threshold is set pretty damn low here — but it seems like the world is falling apart around us, spiraling downward faster than I can blink.”  Holding strong with you for 1461 days.

Lastly, Bent Not Broken has a post about celebrating Christmas and finding triggers where she didn’t expect them; namely, a baby that shows up at the party.  She writes, “It seemed like most of the day there were two themes of conversation: breastfeeding and our president elect.  I did not wish to engage in either of these conversations so I found the bathroom to be a welcome escape.”  Something I suspect many people will deal with this holiday season, so I echo her sentiments at the end: wishing you “a happy, or at least not terrible, holiday season.”

The roundup to the Roundup: Cookies for Cops and excellent spatulas.  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 December 16th and 23rd) 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.