675th Friday Blog Roundup

Linus turned one this week.  I like to remind him that he will always be my little baby, especially because he is much smaller than Truman and will never be allowed to run around unsupervised because he can squeeze himself into tiny, hard-to-reach spaces.  Plus he still acts like a baby.  If you tell him, “jump, jump!” he will jump in the air and then land and run in a circle because he is so happy with himself.

I love my boy so much: he is my furry bestie, my squeaky co-worker, my chatty companion.  He likes car rides and cookies.

Happy birthday, big boy!

(I had to push the button so he could take a selfie because his paws are a little short.)

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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:

• “#Microblog Mondays: The Upside” (My Path to Mommyhood)
• “Complete” (It Only Takes One)
• “Nope” (NotMyLinesYet)
• “The Dreams That Didn’t Come True” (Stirrup Queens) — thanks, Cristy!
• “Day 24 — The End” (The Barrenness)
• “Von ‘ohne Kind’ zu ‘OK’” (Elaine ohne Kind)
• “The Christmas Tree Story” (My Path to Mommyhood)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Searching for Our Silver Lining has a post about a strained relationship due to infertility.  This post actually stayed with me due to a phrase: “I am an infertile who is parenting.”  Infertile first, parent second.  Both true, but the order they go in makes a difference.  And it also makes a difference when the people around you acknowledge YOUR order, even if they would order those descriptions differently.

Today’s the Day writes about doing a DNA testing kit with her son.  She explains: “This past summer Liam expressed interest in finding out more about his ancestral background, so we ordered 2 DNA testing kits – one for him and one for myself. As the adoptees of the family, we felt this would be fun to do together.”  It is an amazing story of how a DNA test opened the door to finding family.  You will want to read this post.

Lastly, NotMyLinesYet has a post about the financial side of infertility.  She has worked out how much she has paid towards family building so far and then points out the true cost: “It’s bought me near constant physically pain and months missed from work. It bought amazing, touching connections with friends and family members who have reached out. To echo what appears to be a recurrent theme: it bought us hope and the loss of hope.”  Go read this whole moving post.

The roundup to the Roundup: It’s Linus’s first birthday.  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 22nd and January 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.