The emoblopedia feels like a tottering little bicycle that is just starting to straighten out and pick up steam. Thank you for all of the great ideas so far and a special thank you to Tina, Katd, SoCo, Bea, and Pamela for being the first people to send me some links to kick off the project. I'm looking forward to seeing this grow like the Creme de la Creme list and become this sea of points-of-view and writing styles from the infertile and pregnancy loss community. An interactive anthology of the experience.

If you're having trouble figuring out links to send, work backwards. Cull out your favourite posts--the ones you felt good about when you hit the publish button. The ones that received positive comments and nods of approval. We all have plenty of these types of posts. And then create a new category to fit that post (or check the list to see if there's a good place where it could already fit). One problem is that sometimes a post fits in multiple categories. It's fine to put it in more than one place if it covers multiple ideas or to choose the place where it fits best. And from now on, as you write something that you like, send on the link and put it in the emoblopedia so another person who is searching for words that echo her own experience can find your post and feel less alone. And if you love a post on someone else's blog, let them know that you think it would be a good addition to the list by contacting them directly or leaving the idea in the comments section of their blog.

There's no reason to be modest--if you have even one reader for your blog, your words make a difference in another person's life. And if you have a new blog and haven't had any readers yet, this is a great way for people to find you.

Remember--there is no limit. You can send one a day, you can send 15 at once, or you can two and then never send another. And I'll add the links as quickly as I can, though I will probably move over to a wiki-like system when I get a chance to figure out the logistics of that. I think the project needs to blossom a bit first.

And, of course, as soon as I can grab a few minutes, I'm going to create a little emoblopedia icon.

Speaking of which, I'm intrigued with the idea of creating a badge for the Friday Blog Roundup--especially because I am obsessed with Microsoft Paint and believe that all beautiful things come from that program. What would it look like? Would people put it on their blog?

It's an ugly, dreary, rainy day here, but these are some beautiful, uplifting, sunny examples of things I found in the blogosphere this week (wasn't that a nice little balanced sentence?):

This isn't an infertility blog, but I found it interesting nonetheless (what? There's more in the blogosphere beyond infertility and pregnancy loss blogs?). In Oh, the Joys blog this week, there was a post titled "George the Blog Monkey" that goes through all of the reasons she blogs as well as why she reads other blogs. She asks a series of questions about blogging beginning with this idea: "What does it mean to be so intimately exposed to others through their writing and the interactive commenting without ever having met them?" I don't have answers to most of them, but they're fascinating questions. Thank you, DD, for sending me the link.

Dear, sweet May at Nuts in May had an HSG this week, but she wrote two funny posts (can unblocking a tube actually be funny?) from the experience. Click here and here to read about re-peeing, stripping to Vivaldi, and dye leakage. As well as differences you never knew existed between the British and American gynecological experience.

Nica at Life as a Sandwich has a moving and thought-provoking post this week about fairness. And the general lack-there-of fairness in life. It's a different way to look at the age-old question of why bad things happen to good people as well as that fact that we can't force luck in our favour simply by being a good person. And learning to let go once we realize all these difficult lessons.

Sami at A Cop, A Nurse, 3 Dogs, and Maybe Baby has a post that will (1) bring you to tears and (2) make you start your own list of all the reasons you love your parents (I guess this second point is contingent on you loving your parents). It is a very emotional tribute to her father who died three years ago. And I bawled reading it even though I've never met Sami or her father. It's just that you can feel how much she loved him.

Lastly, Elizabeth at the I Word asks an interesting question this week about the informal rules of alcohol while trying-to-conceive. Do you give up alcohol before CD1? Drink until ovulation? Continue to drink until you see two pink lines? Have a sip or two through the pregnancy? Head over and weigh in with your opinion about alcohol while trying-to-conceive and when you stop tipping back actual margaritas (imaginary margaritas, of course, can always be consumed at the Virtual Lushary regardless of the point in your cycle or pregnancy).

Have a wonderful weekend. And send those links!