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.