Last night as we were sitting around watching a movie, Mike had the very disconcerting experience of discovering a spider crawling up his shirt. He shrieked, “A spider! Mama! A spider is crawling on me!” I turned around expecting to see a spider the size of a pinhead, and was shocked to see something more the size of a penny! I flew into action whapping that poor spider off onto the floor, and then Mike and I stood there staring at the floor wishing we could see the beast so I could squish it. But the spider wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice and was probably already half-way to Wisconsin.

Mike settled back down to watch the movie, but he kept making comments like, “I don’t like spiders!” I had to agree with him that they really aren’t my favorite creatures, especially when they get THAT close!

This morning I had things I wanted to do outside in the yard, so my little guys (Judah & Mike) followed me out there and helped in every way they could. We planted flowers, we spread grass seed in the yard, and most importantly, we watered everything in sight. I kept filling the big bucket with water, and then we used that to fill our little watering cans. Judah has a green snail that was a birthday gift from Aunt Mary, and Mike used the other watering can or whatever he could find that pleased him.

While I was working away in the yard, Mike hollered that there was a spider in his flower pot. “It’s a flying spider!” he said. I called back to him that it was probably not a spider because spiders don’t fly, but he insisted. He kept trying to make it go away from his pot by pouring water on it. Finally I went over to see what creature was getting Mike’s attention.

There, clinging to a leaf, was a very soggy bee, probably a small honeybee. I exclaimed, “Mike! It’s a bee! It’s not a spider!” I held out my little shovel and the bee gratefully climbed on, glad to be rescued from the very wet world he was in. I looked at him more closely and then said, “I’ll put him over here on my flowers. He’ll sit nicely here.” The bee climbed into my flowers and sat quietly.

I don’t know if Mike believes me that this wasn’t a flying spider. He was just glad to have it away from his flower pot. Meanwhile I had to stifle a laugh as I thought about the poor wet bee. Earlier today Mike’s flower pot had been showing some very nice little sprouts from the seeds we had planted in there a few weeks ago. But now there isn’t a seedling left. Maybe they’ll recover from their overwatering and sprout again.