What's the opposite of arachnophobia?

School this morning was quick and easy. Because I wanted to get a loaf of bread going, but only started at 9 with it, I simply gave the boys the scheduled work to do which they can carry on with by themselves. They whizzed through it in record time – maybe I should employ this tactic of completely independent work more often – which made the whole early section very quick. In fact, we got through everything so fast that we were able to do our entire maths work before tenzees! That meant that after our break we only had to do the boys’ readings, then science and the other read-alouds, of which there weren’t many today. We were finished school by 11.30, AND that included spending a long time looking at a spider on its web in the front garden. Caleb discovered this spider yesterday. He was excited about it and especially wanted me to see it, because the web had been so precisely made, “just like in school”, he said, although I can’t remember where we learned about webs – must have been in Charlotte’s Web. That led him to hunt down a grey bug from the back yard, which he could throw at the web to see what would happen. What happened was that the spider, a peculiar bright yellow spotty thing, slowly approached the trapped bug and ate it. It certainly was interesting and quite exciting to watch. Later in the day, Caleb found a dead spider and put it on the web, but I happened to see the live one simply remove it from the web. Very clever little arachnid. Lunch was a hurried affair, which I didn’t want to prolong because the bread I had made in the morning was scheduled for a delivery, to Wilson and Jean. This was the same recipe I used on Saturday, the cherry and raisin bread, which Wilson enjoyed so much that he wanted his own loaf. The rest of the afternoon was very relaxed. I didn’t have anything particular to accomplish, so I went to town for petrol and a few groceries – oh, I happened upon the blocks of frozen chicken breast pieces again, so bought three punnets. I am now well stocked with chicken and mince for the month – great to have the variety. I also found carrots in the Star, which lately have been very hard to come by, but these carrots were of such huge proportion that I was sure they would be bitter. And sticking my finger into a concealed mushy bit where it was rotting served to set my mind against them. So when I saw more carrots at Thorpes, little ones, I happily bought a big bag.