690th Friday Blog Roundup

The twins and I are having a read-a-thon this weekend.  Josh is busy with a committee he’s on, so we’ve made stacks of books and purchased a lot of snacks from Trader Joe’s.  We plan on reading books and eating Cat Cookies for People non-stop all weekend.

The Wolvog is reading Moonwalking with Einstein and The Most Human Human.  The ChickieNob chose books about various members of royal families including Sally Bedell Smith’s book about Queen Elizabeth and The Royal Sisters.  I am reading Shades of Grey (the Jasper Fforde book), Hello, Sunshine, and A Study in Charlotte.

My plan is to emerge from the weekend covered in crumbs with more books added to my “read” list.

What are you reading?

*******

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:

• “Microblog Mondays: The Emperor Has No Tea” (NotMyLinesYet)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Dwelling in Possibility has a beautiful post that, while not about pregnancy loss or neonatal death, will resonate as she discusses the reality of widowhood.  Especially this thought about depleted energy tanks: “Even when we’re well into the experience of living while grieving, even when we’ve re-entered our lives and have gone back to work, gone back to being present for family and friends, gone back to what looks like, for all intents and purposes, a functional life. We still need a bigger top off on our tanks to take us through.”  Her words about crying in the car sent (good) chills down both arms.

Res Cogitatae has a fascinating post about the people who are important to us that people outside our community or country or culture don’t know.  Again, not about infertility, but I couldn’t help but think about the individuals who loom large in our personal worlds — children not here — that other people never know about.  It also reminded me of all the times I’ve walked through the Portrait Gallery and wondered, “Who is that?”  And to another community, that person is one of their most important representatives.  Jump into her comment section, too, after you read the post.

Bent Not Broken wins for first Mother’s Day spotting.  As she points out, does a minor holiday really need a month of lead-up time?  Though she made me laugh with her ending: “But yeah, it looks like we (at least those of us here in the US) have a full month of advertising for a holiday that doesn’t apply to us ahead of us! Pass the pineapple ale!”

Lastly, Lavender Luz ponders the future of adoption.  She looks at the two ways the needle has swung in the past and the problems with both ways of thinking.  And she proposes a different way of contemplating openness and doing the hard work of exploring feelings so people remain open to all possibilities, all experiences.

The roundup to the Roundup: We’re having a read-a-thon.  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 April 13th and 20th) 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.