Said the spider to the fly, "Hey, how'd you get here?"

The neat thing about homeschooling (besides not having to get the kids dressed and fed before 10am) is that I tend to see things as 'opportunities' now. Husband dislocates finger? Look at x-rays and talk about bones and where they are supposed to be. Mold on the loaf of bread? Stare at it for a while and admire its patchy growth. I can't really 'lecture' or 'teach' too strongly or I lose interest and get lots of blank faces (after all, they are only 2, 3 and 5).

So, when my mom and I were cleaning out our enclosed porch this weekend and I found a spider sitting on a nest in the empty votive, I first put it outside so that a million baby spiders wouldn't hatch on my porch. But, the next morning, I was feeling a bit guilty (I blame Charlotte's Web and Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek for this). I also recognized that the kiddos may actually find this spider and her nest interesting. So, I cut off the sides of a plastic cup, put the votive into it and then lowered this into a large empty planter that is on the porch (this was to protect Ms. Spider from the cats and kids).

And then, I started to worry that she may be hungry. After being moved twice in 24 hours, surely any webs she had spun for food were out of reach. But, what to feed her?

The slow-moving, buzzing sound of a fly hit my ear in the family room. He was a big guy, lazily slamming into the walls and windows. I grabbed a dish towel and gave him a whack. He fell to the floor, just about dead but with enough leg twitching to be of interest to a spider (how I know this, I don't know). I picked him up, told him I was sorry and then plopped him on top of the spider's nest. She didn't move for a moment, but then --- ka-POW!---she leapt on top of him. Wowee, nature in action! Yes, I know there is nothing natural about this---spiders can't call for take out---but I felt that I had to give this spider a little help since I had been responsible for uprooting her in the first place.

I'm not really sure what I'll do next. The kids want to scour for bugs but I don't really want to get into the habit of feeding our spiders on a regular basis. God knows I already have enough dishes to do.