Morning surprise.

"Honey, we have a visitor!"  Mr. Man cheerfully announces walking into our bedroom this morning.
"rrft. What?  Who?"  I grab my phone and look at the time.  Surely I haven't slept that late!  "It's 8:30 am.  Who would just drop in? "
He's grinning wide enough to almost break his face open.  Eyes sparkling, he holds out his hand.  Wrapped around it is a tiny garden snake.   Rarely does my husband play jokes on me like this.  He is altogether too amused with himself and my intial reaction.  I am so relieved it's just a snake.
"Poor baby.  Put it out in the garden where it belongs.  We need snakes in the garden."
"I know that." he replies and takes his captive outdoors where it belongs.  He reports back.  "It's slithered under one of the rocks around the squash bed."
"Good.  He can do some good out there."

This exchange got me thinking, once again, about how we are not really a "normal" or "typical" family.
Usually these reminders come when our oldest son has a friend over for dinner.  Reactions range from a dumbfounded  "we never eat (fish, salad, etc.)  Do you have frozen pizza?"  to "I've never had artichokes.  Can I try some?"

Or blank stares from a group of students when I ask if they saw a play based on the book we're reading.

Sometimes, this different can be hard on my kids socially...because our world is a little different.  Our family is bigger.  We don't have pets.  We garden.  Yet they figure it out eventually.  They don't need lots of friends.  They just need the right ones.  It works out.  In the summer, kids will come by to swing, watch our garden, and eat popsicles.  E2 will reforge his relationships with his "bike buddies." And sometimes, having the parents  that are "weird but nice" is a good thing.  It was really cool for the kids to see a juvenile snake this morning, before he was let loose.

Summer Break is here.

    The last week of school always feels like a mom marathon.  Picnics, field trips, award ceremonies.....I don't know how moms that work do it.  It's exhausting, and without sacred nap I'm not sure this mom would have made it through.  Then they come home.   For 80 days, give or take a few, I get to do what my home school friends do for 365.
    The first day is usually no problem.  A lot of tv gets watched.  Little eyes glaze over from the computer screen.  Then they head outside to "water" my yard and garden and roll like little piggies in the mud.
   The second day, we pull out a new activity or two.  This year it was build-your-own dino kits.  The girls will get to the "fancy nancy" jewelry later.  Every now and then a kid asks "Where's Dad?"  He's at work kid.  Unless you work in a school, there is no summer vacation for grown ups.  My freshly minted second grader declares "I want to be a teacher."
   This summer break, day 2 brought a different kind of breaking.  EARLY in the morning, I get this phone call from my husband.  "Honey, I hit a curb and blew out two tires."  All right.  I'm on my way.  I wake up our oldest and let him know he's in charge for a while.  Never have I been more grateful to have a laid back, responsible teenager.
    We talk on the phone while I'm getting myself together.  Is there a used tire place nearby?  Should we call the insurance?  Should we have it towed back to where we bought the tires and hope we bought the hazard coverage?  I'm kind of a wreck by the time I get up there.
    I park the van.  I cut across Sonic's parking lot, and I see his car.  Then I look up, and just a little further to the side I see a sign that God has a sense of humor in his provision.  "Goodyear."
Mr. Man is sitting in his car, playing on his phone.  I tap on the window.   "Uh honey.  Didn't you see there's a Goodyear right there?"
"No."  He's so cute when he blushes.  We get the car set up and I drive him to work.
Sure I'll have to come back later with a couple of kids in tow to pick up the car, but the "crisis" was dealt with.   Still, it's not the kind of break we have in mind when we think of summer.

Happy Birthday Monkey Boy!

    For about half of his short life, Si Guy has been obsessed with monkeys.  He loves watching them at the zoo.  He loves climbing like one and eating bananas.  He loves both his giant stuffed monkeys.  He loves his Curious George library.  Maybe, it's because like most monkeys, he's very playful and very curious.
   This year, the mommy timer broke.  With so much going on with the end of school, end of AWANA, getting ready for VBS...little Si guy's birthday slipped my mind until about Thursday, even with the daily reminders since his friend J's birthday party the Saturday before.  So Friday, while big bro was at his dress rehearsal for his ballet recital, momma hit Big Lots looking for a present.  The best I could do was a HUGE spider-man playground ball, with the spiderman saying on it.  *about great ability and great responsibility*.  He fished his present out of our closet Saturday morning and couldn't have been happier.  I love young kids.
   Later that morning, while he out planting tomatoes with Daddy, I was buying birthday donuts for breakfast and ordering a cake to have on Sunday when grandma came over.  I also brought home a small cake so he could have some "on the day."  He was excited about that too!
   Needless to say, he was dumbfounded when grandma came over today with a present, "BUT my birthday was yesterday.  Really?  More?"  and he had a Curious George cake to boot!
   That kinda sums up Si pretty well.  He takes every blessing, as just that, an unexpected piece of joy.

If time had a tail we could grab to slow it down..

Sure it's cliche, but honestly the last month has flown by.
So much happened in April that my head spins.
There was the most excellent road trip with my cousins, to attend my grandmother's memorial service.
It was refreshing in many ways to be child free for a few days.  Yet we were all missing our kids by the time we came home, enough to listen to "Allergies" and "Seven ate Nine" and sing songs from Veggietales.  C.  Here's the Santa song, just for you.

Then there was the week of too much PTA.  The pot of gold at the end of that rainbow is that my days as president are numbered.

But far and away, my favorite part of recent days was going with the kindies to the farm.

I had the privilege of seeing my darling five year old "milk" a cow (bucket w/ udders filled with water), catch 3 fish (including the one that got away!), and feed a baby goat.  We visited with chickens and ate healthy snacks.  We saw baby cows and a very, very, pregnant mom-to-be cow.  We listened to a story at the bank.  Then we were out of time.  I assured him we could go back again and see the other half, but for that day we were out of time.  Hence why I didn't record the amazing month of April well enough.  I was too busy doing to be dwelling.  I was out of time.  I can't wait for summer's slower pace.