First of all, people often receive more than they can handle and consequently lose their minds, go on shooting sprees, etc. Secondly, I don't believe in the sort of God who goes around handing out experiences: here's some for you, here's some for you, whoops, overloaded you a bit there, sorry, I'll take back that disaster and give it to him instead, etc.
Case in point: the woman who lost her home in the dreadful fire raging in the hills above Boulder and then had her car broken into and lost everything she'd salvaged from that home. Note to God: that was more than anyone could handle. God: I didn't do it!
I've been watching the Boulder Daily Camera online obsessively for updates on the fire. We feel so far away from it all! We haven't talked to anyone in Boulder since it started. I don't think I know anyone who lives in the burned area, though I used to -- a guy I dated briefly when I first moved to Boulder. But he's dead. I do wonder if his house burned, but it's no concern of mine, or his for that matter.
Going back to the God thing, I will say that it was nice of Providence, or Fate, or whoever would like to take credit, to have held off giving Baby A stomach flu until after I was mostly recovered from my bug. I still don't have a lot of energy, but I'm doing OK, and it's good to feel OK when you have a vomiting toddler. Baby A threw up his morning medicine all over his highchair, and then the raspberries he'd eaten earlier onto the carpet next to my computer desk, and then the water I stupidly gave him (mixed with more of the earlier raspberries) onto their ABC puzzle, and then once more with feeling, all over my white pants and the carpet.
My solution was to put on shorts instead (in the hope that the next expulsion would hit my bare leg) and bring out another puzzle. I have really created a monster with this puzzle thing. Baby B is an outstanding puzzle maker! He can make Cow-pig Animal (their name for their favorite puzzle -- a nice 24-piece wooden barnyard scene) all by himself. He can make all the puzzles all by himself, although I think he thinks the word for puzzle is "animal." Both he and Baby A call all the puzzles "animal." There's "Bear Animal," "Buh-fly Animal," "A Animal" (that's the ABC puzzle). He is ready for the next level, but I do not have the next level available. So I got down an adult puzzle that claimed to have big pieces for kids, small pieces for adults, so the whole family can do it together. We worked and worked on it, Baby B tried so hard, I frantically worked to put the edge pieces together -- but it wasn't very successful. I need some easier puzzles.
(For illustration purposes, here we are making Cow-pig Animal with Dada, on a less vomitous day.)
So anyway, then we took Baby B to daycare, and then Baby A and I went home to spend the afternoon together. And what did he want to do? "Cow-pig Animal!" It turned out that Baby A wanted some catch-up time with the puzzle. He can't make it all by himself yet. So we made Cow-pig Animal about 43 times (I think it was actually 6), until Mommy lost her mind and then we sat on Mommy's lap and checked on the progress of the fire, and had some crackers and 7-Up, which we did NOT throw up, and thus the afternoon passed by.
Crystal, the woman who cleans for us every 2 weeks, came today, so she washed windows and cleaned bathrooms while we made puzzles. Then we took her home and picked up Baby B from daycare and brought him home. And what did Baby B want to do as soon as he got home? "Cow-pig Animal!" Baby B needed to reassert his dominance over the puzzle-making, but Baby A was having none of that. Soon puzzle pieces were flying and little people were screaming. Boos do not understand that puzzling is a quiet, contemplative activity.
Dada came home with a sack of dinner and I went to my bed for a 2-minute rest. Whoever is in charge (and I really don't think anyone is) regularly gives me more than I can handle, but today it was just a little bit more.
And now the weekend. They say the Boulder fire is 56% contained and could be 100% in 3-5 days. We're cautiously hopeful.
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