This Week At Home, Number 30

Just a house I like. Wouldn't some chickens look nice in the yard? 

In which I revamp formats, yet again.

On the Heart and Mind:
The return of cooler weather, with liveable humidity has been the saving grace of my sanity. 

My Sweet Girl

Life and Learning:
Our second week of school is going very well.  We continue to check off the chapters in some very captivating books.  We are enjoying The Golden Goblet, although, it might be a bit predictable for some tastes, namely oldest son, who would rather all books be set in space.  The oldest two are also reading Mara, Daughter of the Nile.  And, we are all enjoying our Story of the World text.   I can tell they are listening.

Let me tell you how I know this is true.  I can tell they are listening because they are starting to bring up bits of the books and make connections to our everyday word.  For instance, today when my beloved 2002 Dell desktop bit the desk, they asked if they could mummify it.  Then they went onto describe how they'd do it and what they'd do to protect it from grave robbers.  See, they are learning. 

This is an improvement over the first time we studied ancient history.  They mummified every doll in the house.  I almost had to hide the toilet paper.  

This week we also took an Indiana History field trip to our local living history museum on a very lovely day. It was just too lovely to stay inside. 

Around the House:
The house is holding its own since its cleaning on Tuesday.  I have to make a decision what to do with the "desk" in the kitchen now that my desktop is not going to be there.

This is what it looked like when it was clean. 

Kitchen desk with computer before its death.  

This is what it usually looked like.

Ugh!  The area is a giant clutter magnet.  It doesn't work to use it as an eating area.  It's not big enough for all of us.  It is too low for extra counter space, which I really need and want.  What would you do with it? 
In the Kitchen:

I finally made hummus!  I had asked my sweet friend JoAnn for her recipe a whole month ago. Then I would forget to buy one ingredient and have to wait another week.  (Yes, I can be a bit disorganized.) Well, I finally got some made and I have to say I am in love!   I ended up using a different recipe from Best Life, one for a blender.  I only have a blender, so this worked great.

2 cans of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 huge clove of garlic, pressed

1t salt

up to 1/2 cup of warm water

1 t cumin

juice of 1/2 a lime

3T tahini sauce

I just mixed it on low and stopped frequently to mix with the spatula.  This recipe is the bomb.  It is not "biting" like some we have purchased already prepared.  Also because it doesn't use sesame seeds, but the tahini sauce, it doesn't have to go through the blender very long.  It was thick and creamy!

Table of "curiosities"

We don't have big plans for the weekend.  We cancelled a camping trip when we got home from our last one.  We decided we would rather wait until better weather and it is promotion Sunday at church and the kids were disappointed at the thought of not being there. 


Thank you for taking the time to read and if you have any thoughts on the kitchen desk, let me know.  I want to work on that and get it settled by next week. 
~Jenn