Category — Friday Blog Roundup

Every morning this week, I woke up and immediately thought, “I only have X days until my birthday.” It would be fair to say that I have been highly aware of my birthday this year. It felt a little bit like when you know there is a spider in the room, and you’ve determined that you’re going to wait for someone else to take care of it, but you sort of can’t stop yourself from tracking the spider… it was that except in birthday form.

I saved an Anthony Horowitz book to read. There will definitely be French fries, amusement park rides, and wishes made.

*******

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 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. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “#MicroblogMondays: Information Overload vs Creativity” (The Road Less Travelled)

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Barreness gives an update on her parents. My heart hurt for her when I read this note about her mother: “I am often her therapist explaining how things are not ever going back to how they were and that this is the new normal. She asks again hours later, like I am that magical fridge that you open the door to and new things appear.” It is a really really really hard situation, and she could use a kind word. So please go over and let her know that she has people holding her up as she does this hard work.

Lastly, Scientist on the Roof has a post that felt very familiar, in that this is how I process stress, too. But I love this so much: “I keep telling myself – this is not like grad school. I can quit. I can look for another job … Or maybe I’ll just do the best I can and let things be what they will be.” It’s hard to get to that place of acceptance, so sending deep breaths.

The roundup to the Roundup: Birthday weekend. 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 24 – May 31) 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.

I won a Goodreads giveaway for the 4th time! While I won the first three (1, 2, and 3) pretty close together, it has been years since I won a giveaway. This time, it’s for the new Peter Swanson.

Seeing that “Congrats — You are a Giveaways Winner!” subject line makes me feel like a life winner. Like the book universe dropped a crown on my head and declared me the luckiest lady on the planet. It is such a high that I keep the email in my inbox and peek at it whenever I need a pick-me-up during the day.

I get that hundreds (thousands?) of people win Goodreads giveaways daily, and many have won them more than four times over the years, but this week, I feel book lucky, which is one of my favourite luckies to be.

*******

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 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. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “18 Years” (Born Still But Still Born)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Finding a Different Path made a list after her divorce of what she’d want in an ideal partner. The story has a happy ending, and she found someone who hit 18 of the 20 traits. But what made this story even sweeter is what happens when you give someone time (and a lot of hints), and they end up fulfilling #19, just because they love you.

Lastly, By Lisa With Love writes about her child entering the double digits. But growing up also brings up other thoughts and she writes: “It feels very much like my grief after my two pregnancy losses. It’s almost like the grief for the loss of what might-have-been is heavier than the loss of what-cannot-be-any more.” It’s a moving post, and I’m glad she’s back with an update.

The roundup to the Roundup: Goodreads winner x 4. 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 17 – May 24) 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.

Provided I keep writing the Roundup every week this summer, I will hit 1000 Roundups on August 16. Moreover, if I keep writing this blog, I will hit 18 years in a few weeks in late June. My blog will be an adult.

Think about how many blog posts I’ve read to write 1,000 Roundups.

Writing the number for this Roundup — 987 — made me think about milestones and big numbers. A deep slowdown in blogging makes me think about what comes next.

*******

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 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. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

No Kidding in NZ wrote about the sequel to a book that has been on my TBR. There is a lot many of us will relate to, and I loved this line she highlighted: “In talking about pregnancy loss, she notes,’That you can’t let go of grief, you have to wait until it lets go of you’.” Also, Mother’s Day is a complicated day, and while I’ve seen it expressed on blogs, I’ve yet to see it expressed in a book. So now I have another entry on my TBR.

Lastly, the Road Less Travelled wrote about the Northern Lights. We couldn’t see them because it was too rainy both nights, but my Facebook feed was flooded with pictures. She expresses feeling guilt that some people were seeing the Northern Lights for the first time, and had thought they would never get to experience them. She explains, “They were infrequent and special enough that we’d usually go outside to have a look at them, but they weren’t exactly a rarity.” I fall in the “haven’t seen them yet” camp, so looking forward to the experience one day.

The roundup to the Roundup: That’s a lot of blog posts. 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 10 – May 17) 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.

A few weeks ago, we were at the Brambles, and we saw two geese on the opposite bank staring us down. Really, one goose was staring us down, and the other goose was trying to get her gosling to join its siblings underneath it. The gosling was exploring the river bank and kept coming close to the larger goose, who would rise a bit to encourage the gosling to enter their cover. It took a few minutes for the gosling to finally disappear under the goose, and we told the couple that there was no possible way for us to mess with them. As I said, we were on the opposite bank and not about to swim across.

The moment we walked away, the goose released all of the goslings beneath them.

I feel a little like that goose right now, wishing both kids were home.

*******

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 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. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

No Kidding in NZ is featured in a new book, but the post is also about the importance of sharing your story. As she’s reading the other essays in the book, she comments: “She mentioned an experience I thought I alone had had. But of course, I wasn’t the only one. And although I felt alone, I was not.” Stories reduce loneliness and isolation.

Lastly, The Road Less Travelled has gripes and pleasures. I don’t know why the bear question is having a renaissance now vs. all of the other times over the years that I’ve heard it. Or why men are just hearing it (seemingly?) for the first time. Though I’m all for men understanding what additional factors balance into decisions. And totally agree on the price of books. And I’ll add to the list — movies.

The roundup to the Roundup: Feeling like a goose. 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 3 – May 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.

If August 2023 was a month that I dreaded for years, May 2024 is a month I’ve looked forward to for… well… not years. But certainly months. Pretty much since August 2023.

This year has felt like one of those confidence courses they string up in trees where you wear a harness and walk across a wobbly log suspended twenty feet about the ground. I’m not a fan (you’ve probably guessed) of confidence courses, though there is something about that moment when you step off the wobbly log onto the stable tree platform, and your whole body shakes as the adrenaline drains and you think, “I did it. I actually did it.”

Unlike a confidence course, I will need to do it again. When you don’t like something, it doesn’t really help to think about how you got through it last time. But August 2024 feels far enough away right now that I’m just going to enjoy trying to shove their belongings into a storage unit and jumping into the car, celebrating the start of summer. Soon soon.

*******

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 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. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Well Received” (Infertile Phoenix)
• “The Invisible Load” (The Road Less Travelled)
• “The Brambles” (Stirrup Queens) – thanks, Jess!

Okay, now my choices this week.

Grumpy Rumblings has a thought-provoking (and purposefully controversial) question: “Do people really love it when bad things happen to people and hate it when good things happen to people?” An interesting conversation is happening in the comment section (just like the old days!), so jump in.

Lastly, Finding a Different Path is celebrating her birthday (happy birthday!), and she muses on being close to “old enough that the x-ray technicians don’t ask if I could be pregnant.” [Side note: Do not get me started on getting charged for a pregnancy test pre-MRI EVEN THOUGH I COULDN’T BE PREGNANT. Grrr…] Here’s to celebrating (instead of dreading) growing older.

The roundup to the Roundup: It’s finally May 2024! 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 26 – May 3) 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.