786th Friday Blog Roundup

It feels like a goat rodeo in our home. We are trying, people. We are trying hard. But I feel overwhelmed 100% of the time.

Which freaks me out because I feel like we’re also on top of things. We have a family check-in at the end of the each day. Everyone states how they’re feeling. What worked. What didn’t work. What we each need. What we need others to stop doing. What needs to happen. Those meetings make me feel like we’re on top of things. And I STILL feel overwhelmed 100% of the time.

[Side note: I do recommend setting up a nightly meeting like this if you have two or more people in your home. Roommate, partner, kids, parents, etc. Having it set up means that everyone knows there is a time to vent about things without letting frustrations build up or learn what needs to happen to things go smoothly.]

Anyway, I normally work from home, so my adjustment is just having more people in my work space during work time. Everyone else in my home is adjusting to a completely different work routine. So… right… we’re trying. Not always succeeding. But trying all the same.

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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:

• “How Does Coronavirus Relate to Childlessness?” (Childless by Marriage)
• “The Next Chapter for Life Without Baby” (Life Without Baby)

Okay, now my choices this week.

It probably won’t shock you that a lot of bloggers mention Covid-19 this week. By the Brooke gives perspective with C.S. Lewis’s essay on living in the atomic age. Humans have adjusted to living with many things that freaked us out upon first encounter. (And sometimes still freaks us out now.) I love her line: “A microbe may break our bodies, but it need not dominate our minds.” Thank you for this reminder.

Biogirl looks for the good points in her situation. “We are so lucky. And I will tell myself that everyday when I am bored, or lonely, or overwhelmed. I will tell myself that when I am sad for the things we are giving up. These problems are so small in this moment, compared to what others are facing.” Again, a good thing to internally repeat when things feel overwhelming if it’s true for you, too.

Infertile Phoenix is applying the lessons learned from infertility to the current situation. A great point: “I can be easily motivated by fear. However, I can remain aware of my panicky feelings, but I do not have to act on them.” And like infertility, this remains true, too: “We don’t know what the other side will look like yet, but we will get through this.”

Lastly, Inconceivable! has a post about isolation after the NICU that felt very familiar because it was our life, too, in the kids’ first year. She writes, “All this to say, these precautions aren’t totally new to me. The fear isn’t new. The isolation isn’t new.” And states what we all know too well: “Waiting, as I think we all have experienced in various ways, is far tougher than most people give it credit.”

The roundup to the Roundup: Goat rodeo central. 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 March 13 – 20) 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.