846th Friday Blog Roundup

The twins are taking exams from our basement, which is a sentence I never thought I’d write. They had to clear the room of any and all notes. Pop in earphones to create quiet, and start an app that freezes their computer on the exam. This is their 15th month of school from home, which I know is totally normal if you’re homeschooled. But the twins aren’t homeschooled. They are just home and schooled.

This has been a very weird year.

But it now feels more normal to have them doing school from home than thinking about having them go to school in a classroom again. Next year is currently set to be in-person. I know I will once again grow accustomed to having everyone out of the house, but I sense that it will take me months to go back to feeling like it is “normal” in the same way that it took me months to come to a place where everyone at home felt “normal.”

I’m in a liminal space, trying to figure out how I feel about everything.

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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:

• “Between the Lilac and the Birch” (Mrs. Spit… Still Spouting Off)
• “Parenthood and Grandparenthood in the Pandemic” (InfertilityHonesty)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Jewish IVF asks when those twinges of jealousy will ever go away. She writes: “For me it’s more like a tug in my heart, the sting in my eyes, the pull in my gut. Then guilt that I feel it at all instead of just being happy for someone when they share their news.” For her, it’s pregnancy-related more than baby-related, but this idea hit home for me, too. I still feel those twinges sometimes.

The Uterus Monologues was asked when they’re planning to have another child. She explains: “I think the single most surprising thing for me about having a baby has been how quickly people ask when you’re going to do it all over again.” She does the mental math of what it will take to go through pregnancy again after loss. It’s a fascinating post on where the brain goes when you have so much more to consider.

Lastly, Infertile Phoenix goes through what may be the most awkward and inappropriate icebreaker situation ever when someone decides it will be a fantastic idea to ask all of the people at a new place about whether they have children. Though I love this line: “I didn’t say anything else. No explanation. No elaboration.”

The roundup to the Roundup: The end of the school year at home. 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 May 14 – May 21) 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.