My Refrigerator

I cleaned out my refrigerator this morning. Boy did it need it.

My refrigerator is a good barometer of how in control of my life I am. There are times when I can keep leftovers and fresh fruits and veggies rotated through there with no problem. But other times I can clean it one day and it looks like a foraging area the next day. Maybe because it has been.

I have a place for everything in there. Yes, I am a control freak I guess, but I can't figure out any other way to keep track of what goes in and out. Leftovers go in clear containers—preferably square which is a better utilization of space—on the eye-level shelf. Actually I should clarify that. On my eye-level shelf. I am officially the shortest one in the family now, though still the smartest. At any rate, I do my best to corral all leftovers there for two reasons—so that I can see what needs to be used and so that when ds is walking around with his mouth open and pointing in it I can tell him where to go in the nicest of possible ways. Both he and his dad like taking leftovers for lunch instead of sandwiches so when both of them are working (like NOW! Yay!) there is seldom a leftover that turns into a science experiment.

However, not everyone in my family sees the need to put things back in the appropriate "area" in my refrigerator. Dairy products one spot. When bread goes bad in the heat we resort to keeping it on the bottom shelf with stuff that goes on it like jelly and mayo. We have a hot sauce shelf in the door, a relish & pickle door shelf, one for catsup, mustard and BBQ sauce and a last one for oriental seasonings and sauces. The top shelf of the fridge is mostly drink-related stuff—milk, tea, chocolate syrup, smoothie mixes, that stuff. With a drawer for meat and cheese and one for veggies, it all seems pretty logical and orderly to me.

For some reason it seems to be impossible for my family to follow these simple organizational strategies and so when they're home—like they were through a lot of the summer—I have to do a daily scan and put stuff back where it goes or mayhem breaks loose. Things get thrown in there wherever there's a free space and before you know it we have this shove-shove thing going—shove it in, shove the door shut and watch your toes the next time you open it.

And that is why, when I have things turning on a fairly even axis around the house in general and I'm not running in twelve different directions eight days a week, the refrigerator shows it.

I'm in control today. We'll see how long it lasts.

 

On a completely unrelated note, we saw the deer last night. The season has begun.

Not too far from our house—and right at the dead end of the street we lived on when ds#2 was born—a neighborhood was closed because it was in the flight path of the runway for TAFB and I have heard (but never confirmed) that a plane when down in that neighborhood once, so they decided to give the property to Tinker. It's sort of eerie to drive by because you can still see the streets and the lots surrounded by trees, though there are no structures there. It is a training ground part of the year but in the fall the deer start to come out and graze. We spotted two last night. We have counted as high as ten or eleven I think. That, along with less humidity, a little cooler temperatures and the first day of fall just around the corner, and I'm excited. I have decided that fall is my favorite time of year now. For the longest time it was summer, and I still love the measure of freedom that summer brings, but I like the slow-down of fall. The return to sweaters and soup and routine has a comforting feel to it.

I'm in control and it's fall—who could ask for more? J