801st Friday Blog Roundup

A few months ago, we were watching Schitt’s Creek, and we came to the episode where the family throws a surprise party for David. ChickieNob commented that she had never had a surprise party, despite the fact that we surprise her EVERY YEAR with a floating birthday.

Anyway, do you know how hard it is to plot out a surprise party when no one leaves the house? How do you bake a cake without anyone smelling it? Or get presents without anyone noticing?

You do it when it is NOT someone’s birthday so they aren’t on high alert.

Josh and I freaked out the twins this week, jumping out and screaming surprise and singing “Happy Birthday.” We ordered gifts online, intercepting them at the door before they could see. Josh picked up ice cream because we couldn’t figure out the cake thing. They were totally surprised, mostly because it was not their birthday. But… you know… we did it. We won. Checkmate.

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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:

• “#MicroblogMondays: Garden Therapy” (My Path to Mommyhood)
• “I Wish Someone Would Ask Me…” (Grief Is the Word)

Okay, now my choices this week.

It’s Inconceivable writes about several frustrating situations with friends (and family). In all cases, she felt shunted to the side. She writes, “Despite being close friends with someone and watching their kids grow up, looking after them, being their sounding boards, spending time with them, going on camping trips with them, remembering them at Christmas and so forth – they aren’t your kids, so when things like this occur, you get relegated to the background and the periphery and there’s not a fat lot you can say or do about it.” It’s not just the action itself; it’s the role social media plays in letting you know what you’re missing.

An Engineer Becomes a Mom writes about labels. “I’ve spent most of my life hiding behind these particular labels: Introvert, Pessimist, Rule-follower, Worker-bee, Engineer, ISTJ, Dominant (DISC Profile), Enneagram 1. These labels are just that, labels, and the attachment I placed on them was limiting.” It’s a post about how we see ourselves, and how that changes over time. I love this: “What I’ve found is that as I grow and heal, I’m shedding the personality I wore my whole life and growing into a different version.”

Lastly, The Road Less Travelled has a post about revisiting with an old radio program. The creator of the program died several years ago, but the radio station is rerunning old episodes right now. It is like getting back in touch with an old friend. She writes: “I can’t think of anything more comforting during these turbulent times than to spend an hour with Stuart again on Sunday mornings.” I’m glad you have this.

The roundup to the Roundup: Operation Surprise Party completed. 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 3 – July 10) 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.