"Oh my gosh, it's a tarantula!"

"Oh my Gosh, It's a tarantula!"

How do you get 9 children who are quietly nestled into their school spots in other rooms to instantly appear before you (and the baby to start wailing)? 

call this out in a steady tone, and then run out of the room.

Really our house is tiny and tidy and we move things and sweep every day. There's no place for a spider that size to hide. This stow-away had come into the house in some luggage that had been left outside for 3 months. We were sorting the clothes in the luggage when Leon felt something crawling across his hand that was in his lap. I saw him make a quick movement of casting something from him into the open suitcase and then he kept staring at it. That made me look.

Next I called, "Sim, Zion, we need you!". 

There was no need to call them. They were already there. I saw Zion holding a bundle of toilet paper and then look at the creature and let the bundle drop on the floor. Sim had a better idea, a big stick. It was bad enough that it was in my suitcase, but when it started walking across some clothes and then up that stick I shrieked and scared the baby again.

"do you want me to kill it?" Sim asked. Leon and I spoke in unison and without hesitating. I said a confident "YES". while Leon said, "no, take it outside". Leon won. Almost everyone went along out to the woods, (home schooling is so much fun!) 

I stayed cowering in the bathroom holding the baby tightly in my arms and letting her soothe me. Havilah came in to comfort me by saying, "it's really just a little animal". That was comforting. 

"yes", I thought, "like a little hamster".

I had been traumatized by being chased with spiders by the big boys at church when I was a child. It caused a phobia of spiders all my life. I have lost much sleep and been driven to anxiety many times. With this in mind, I didn't mind this rather small tarantula as much as I thought I would. Apparently the one that Leon and the children found in the woods a month ago was 5 times bigger! My children informed of this previously hidden fact to make me feel better.

P.S. Mom, if you read this story please understand that this is an isolated instance. I can almost guarantee that their won't be any thing like that around when you come to visit.