how to reuse the food that’s been lying under the kitchen table for a week… (without having to eat it!)

Yesterday I started using Billy Seol’s 108 writing prompts. 

While going for a walk today, I decided to give them a twist. 

I’m trying to see if I can turn each prompt into a suggestion on how to get curious. 

Can I get myself curious about something I haven’t wondered about before? Maybe I can rekindle an old passion. Perhaps I can spark my children’s curiosity. 

Today’s prompt is: what’s on my desk. 

Since I don’t have my own desk, I’m turning it into: what’s on our dining table. 

In fact, all our tables have a tendency to fill up very quickly. Books, scissors, watercolour, sheets of paper, the matchbox car we found at a bakery and no one believed that it wasn’t ours because they literally saw me dropping it, so we ended up taking it home. 

And then of course gravy, chocolate, porridge, rice. It all sticks to the table surface. 

The other half of the food (that doesn’t stick on the table) covers the floor. Bread crumbs, chunks of rice, noodles, butter, cream cheese, milk mixed with rice, carrots, apple and pretzels (don’t ask…). 

If my life was ever turned into a movie, it’d just be one setting: underneath the table where you’d see me (and sometimes my kids – credit where credit is die after all!) sweeping, cleaning, and uhm, well, eating what still looks edible. 

That got me curious about something else. What if we could inspect some of these ‘things’ in more detail? 

Through a microscope for example. We don’t own one unfortunately but there was one on sale with 1200x magnification. I wonder what a 3 day old piece of carrot would look like. Would I be able to see the difference between this one and a fresh one?

What about rice in all its variations: with Maggi, plain, raw, cooked, fried, with tomato sauce, with fish sauce… 

Or the dust underneath the heater next to the table? 

Another way to get curious about the food could be: why does it end up underneath the table? 

Is it because the little one can’t really manoeuvre the did into his mouth without dropping half a spoonful each time? Or is it because the big one is so focused on telling her story about how she built a sand castle that she forgets she’s got a spoon in her hand? 

Is it because the table is round or because the food doesn’t taste them? 

Or, maybe more interesting: where does the food come from initially? How is it made (or grown and harvested). How much of it should we eat to stay healthy? 

Ha! As I’m writing this, more potential questions pop up. But I’m going to leave it at that as the kids are asleep and my eyelids are drooping with tiredness. 

Have a good night 🌙 

P.S. I really want to get my daughter (/us as a family) a microscope for Easter now!!