Rolling Along

Life seems to be rolling along pretty smoothly these days. Abbie is in the swing of the school routine and seems to be managing her classes well. Her math teacher is the major burr in her side this year - exceptionally non-dynamic and not very bright. We just remind her that someday she will also have a boss/colleague/etc. who will be exceptionally non-dynamic and not very bright, so this is good practice for dealing with that.

Taken by a fellow photography student

She is really enjoying photography and has been shooting with real film. She has started developing some of the images in the dark room, as well. Definitely a treat for her. Being back on campus is giving her more of a social life. She agreed to keep score for the volleyball home games (hopefully in exchange for some PE credit), so that usually takes up one evening per week. She has also started a book club with a couple of other girls. The high school had a club day last week where all of the clubs on campus set up a booth and tried to attract members.

For Club Day

Here is her tri-fold for the event (while it was still in process). I did a double-take at first because I misread "No Required Reading" as "No Reading Required," which I thought was a strange selling point for a book club. LOL. Anyway, they were trying to attract members who may not love reading, but want people who do love reading to give them book recommendations, etc. She also signed up for a White Whale reading club where the members tackle really large challenging books (think War and Peace type books). Not much has happened with the club yet, but I guess it will eventually.

Also, on the social front, Homecoming is a few weeks away and everybody pairs up to go with somebody. There is a guy in her grade who is as COVID-concerned as we are (speaking of a white whale), so she decided to ask him if he wanted to go with her. That way, they won't be alone in keeping their masks on throughout the event. He is checking with his parents, so I'll keep you posted on that.

Finally, we had a little impromptu science experiment at home. Abbie decided to put together a small terrarium, so she got some dirt and plants from outside, not realizing that hiding in the mix was a little caterpillar egg. The thing hatched and we had a caterpillar in the terrarium. We fed him basil and spinach leaves and the little thing ate like crazy. It was almost frightening how much food disappeared and how quickly.

After a week or two, the caterpillar disappeared completely. Apparently there are caterpillars that burrow into the soil when it is time to turn into a moth or butterfly. As you can see, it is sort of a non-descript caterpillar, so we had no idea what it was going to turn into. Two weeks went by with this thing, presumably, buried in the soil. We were starting to wonder whether it was dead. Then, suddenly, Abbie happened to notice a moth on the side of the terrarium, where just a few hours earlier, there had been nothing.

We took the terrarium outside and pulled the lid off. The moth promptly flew away but we were able to get a couple of rough photos. It turns out that we grew an owlet moth. Apparently, they are good for the environment, so Abbie was happy with that. I am just happy that everything ended well and that the science project is complete. :)