Last Sunday, T was asking what a friend we used to know in Tennessee looked like. It had been too long, and he didn’t remember this guy. We searched on his name on Google, and found this video of him making one of the clearest presentations of the Gospel we’ve ever seen. If you have any doubts about what it is that we believe, this will likely answer your questions:

Said the twins who are helping me vacuum this morning:

“The vacuum cleaner is happy! We’re feeding her her breakfast!”

Vacuum cleaner breakfast consists of: dust, dirt, prickly things from the yard, food scraps, yarn fuzz, forgotten beads, and the occasional tiny Lego when “she” is being naughty. (Kind of like us eating chocolate, right?)

No, I’m not going to tell you how to cook it. This is strictly a winter squash identification lesson. People on the GAPS diet get to eat a lot of squash.

This is especially for you, Mom, so you can pick out squash with confidence in preparation for our visit.

Here are the happy squash farmers in their garden! Notice the worms in the background. (Note also that kids don’t really need toys. They only need squash and yarn scraps in order to stay occupied for hours.)

B is showing you two heirloom pumpkins. Much more exciting than the plain orange ones, wouldn’t you agree? The store even had some that were too heavy for me to lift.

This is butternut squash.

M is holding a delicata squash. Next to him is a kabocha squash.

This is a spaghetti squash, named for the way the inside comes apart in spaghetti-like strings after it’s been baked. It’s heavy.

M would like you to know that this delicata squash is named Mr. Squashy. B is giving you a close-up of his pet worm. It lives in the squash garden.

Maybe we shouldn’t have let them name the squash, because now we’ll have to eat them, and the twins have gotten kind of attached.

The squash had to join us on the couch for our math videos.

I didn’t get a close-up of the acorn squash. That’s the dark green and orange kind, and there are two of them in the picture above.

One butternut squash plus one butternut squash equals … one and one half silly boys.

This has nothing to do with squash, but isn’t this a cute picture?

Back to the squash: when you go shopping, remember that the heavier the squash, the better it is.

I hope this was helpful, Mom!

The wind has arrived and it’s cooler outside this week! Farmor and Farfar can be glad that they missed it.

M picked up a measuring tape and announced, “I’m gonna measure the wind!” Then he turned to me and asked, “Am I crazy?”

B joined him in stretching out the measuring tape. “How big is the wind, guys?” I asked.

B: “It’s forty feet tall! It reaches all the way up to heaven!”

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At lunch, M wanted to know what footprints smell like.

T has been in quite a mood the last couple of days, probably due to the increase in probiotics causing yeast die-off. A few minutes ago, he said something to irritate M. M had the perfect response.

I love you, even though you’re not being nice. I want to hug you.

I called him over to me and told him how proud I was of him, and that this was the definition of real love: loving someone who isn’t being nice.

M is a really amazing kid. He has a smile on his face almost 100% of the time, and he will hug anyone, even strangers. (We have to be careful about that sometimes!) He is also quite the philosopher Living with M has taught me many things.

Here’s another gem from him:

Mommy, is a smirk a smile with attitude?

Who needs a dictionary with this perceptive guy around?

Those may look like bowls of chicken soup on the table, but they’re not.

The broth represents the ocean, and it’s salty.

There is seaweed in this ocean, too.

The orange and light green things are not carrots and celery. They are tropical fish.

The pieces that look like chicken are actually islands.

The translucent things that look like garlic and onions are really jellyfish.

Now you know.

Farmor played lots of soccer, too.

Mommy and B do math together. B colors very slowly, so Mommy has her knitting with her.

Mommy helping B learn how to write numbers.

M plays with the math blocks while he waits his turn at the workbook. T has some learning software that he gets to do once a week.

Farmor and M keep T company while he does math games.

Daddy Bear has his office set up in the trailer now. This means he can get a lot more work done, because it’s quiet out there.

Farmor in the back of the truck, getting food for the boys.

OK, everyone, look into the sun and squint for the camera! This was our whole group at the Desert Museum on Saturday.

We hope Farfar and Farmor had a good time with us and a relaxing trip home!

Heard this morning …

Mommy! I’m having a hard time whistling right now, because I’m so happy that I finally know how to whistle that my mouth keeps smiling and I can’t get it in the right position for whistling!

(Mommy wants to be 7 years old again.)

More pictures from Farmor and Farfar’s visit coming right up … after we go vote!

Farmor decided to help me wind some skeins of yarn for T’s blanket. Suddenly, she had some very interested helpers.

T wanted to contribute to his blanket as well. I may also have him knit a few stitches on it somewhere, if he wants to. BTW, I’ve now finished nearly 41 squares out of 56. (I know. You were all holding your breath, waiting to hear about my blanket progress. )

After lunch at the Desert Museum yesterday: 3 little crickets with full tummies.

M peeks out from some rocks he’s hiding in.

Here’s B, coming out of the rock passage designed for children.

M loved it, too. In fact, we even convinced Daddy to squeeze through the tight passage. There were snakes and other critters in there … behind glass, of course!

After this exhibit, we trudged our way back up the hill to the gift shop and cafe to cool off and take a long rest. It was nearly 100 degrees, after all. (That would be nearly 40 degrees for those of you who use Celsius. In other words, we were being roasted out there.) We then drove back to the city and went to a big bookstore for a couple of hours. After that, we spent the rest of the evening at Aunt J & Uncle R’s house, where we all got plenty of laughs while my cousin R made a poodle “talk” to our twins. You just had to be there to know what that was like.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch …

Just a few minutes ago, I took pictures of them all playing soccer, like they’ve been doing all week. The boys are so thrilled to have their soccer ball brought from Sweden. Aunt P got it for them two years ago, and they really missed having it since we moved here.

What are we going to do when Farfar and Farmor go home tomorrow?

Farfar was training B to be a good goalie.

And then T tried to score against three goalies at once!

Farmor is now outside, taking a turn playing soccer with everyone. It’s getting pretty hot out there.

We went to a corn maze last Monday! It was so much fun. Click here to see an aerial view of it.

There was far too much wind for us to do the hay ride, so we skipped that part.

When we got close to the maze, the wind was blocked by all the tall corn. Here we are at the entrance. We picked a good day; it wasn’t busy at all.

The nice lady there offered to take a picture of all of us. As you can see, Farmor and Farfar are here from Sweden to visit us this week!

We had to follow clues to figure out which way to go. This guy was really good at finding the numbers!

Are we lost?

Success! We found the end! At the last checkpoint, the instructions were to make up a song about the corn maze and sing it to the people when we got out. So Mommy made up a song for the boys to sing with her:

We’re walking through the corn maze,
Walking all day long.
We’re walking through the corn maze.
How do you like our corn maze song?

The boys each received a brand new Arizona quarter (which the maze was designed after) that had never been in circulation. The quarters are very shiny and are a great (if perhaps temporary) souvenir of our fun time at the corn maze.

Conclusion: we would do this again in a heartbeat!