Empty Shelf

Our refrigerator is one of stability and regularity on the inside.   The contents we contain therein look largely the same from month to month, year to year with little in the way of variation.   In the door on one shelf are two kinds of milk, whole milk for the children and me, skim milk for my husband and orange juice for everyone.  Water bottles for the children have the same spot so they can find them easily and condiments are finished and replenished as needed. 

In the main body of the refrigerator are leftovers, usually consisting of some kind of pasta noodle and one of the sauces my husband makes as well as leftovers from the last two meals he's made.   On the bottom shelf is water, unsweetened ice tea and a juice, typically lemonade.   The top shelf has waxed and waned on the amount of beer over the years.  We used to have a lot but since we don't drink beer much here these days, the current stock is one lonely beer bottle of some age that no one has bothered to drink yet. 

One area of the refrigerator that has always remained the same is a short shelf in the middle which has had yogurt for the children for probably six years now.   They would eat yogurt at home and it would go in lunch boxes for school.   Some months we'd have the shelf nearly full across with flavors because so much was being eaten.  

Today, that shelf lies empty.   Both children have phased completely out of yogurt with the last remaining few being thrown out prior to our recent trip due to expiration date.   I've continued to buy a few, but it's been tough getting them to agree to eat it.  My daughter liked some different flavors with an adult version of key lime pie being her favorite until relatively recently.   But no, no one wants yogurt. 

I filled the shelf up today with microwaveable single servings of mashed potatoes and mac-and-cheese for my daughter.  She and I had a conversation on how to discern one container from the other and the timings she would need to use for microwaving each.  

School is starting soon—hopefully—and lunches as well as snacks must be sent in by us.  I'm going to give the yogurt a try once more to see if we can get them interested again.   They may have moved on for a time.  If so, I'm thinking it might be like bananas are here: a favorite for a time and then disliked by the children.   I like yogurt, hopefully, it will have a resurgence soon.

The Big Boy Update:  Rayan and Keira are back and the children met outdoors again to play today.   I asked if they wanted the crystals they'd ordered online and had had so much fun playing with a few weeks ago.   I could tell my son didn't want to bring the crystals out.   He's been playing with them alone in his room and I don't think he wanted to share them.   When I reminded everyone they all had to go back in the bag when they were done, my son agreed and suddenly remembered where he'd put them in his room.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has adopted, with some reservations, listening to the audiobooks she so loves on her iPad.  Many, many audiobooks are free to her from the NLS branch of the Library of Congress because she's blind.  There is an app that mirrors the physical player she has from the library for the blind from our state but she's not yet getting the hang of navigating the player so we're helping.   She's not balking yet and has done a lot of listening on her iPad today.   She's not thrilled because she can't talk to it like she can Alexa, but I told her she was running out of money to buy audiobooks and the same books were free in this format.   That, she understood.   Hopefully there will be an Alexa skill soon for the BARD app she's using so she can listen once again on Alexa.