Jet Puffed Super Jumbo Marshmallows

The other day I discreetly followed around this grandmother and her 9ish year old grandson at the grocery store. And by "discreetly", I really mean that I tried to make my almost constant neighboring of the two of them look unintentional, not like I was invisible, which is impossible with a 1 year old [kinda loud] passenger in your shopping cart.

Anyway...

So the grandma asks her grandson, in that creaky grandmother voice "Jonathon, what would you like for breakfast tomorrow? How about pop tarts?"

And little Johnny's eye's got all big and wide and excited and he said "Really Grandma? Can I pick out any kind I want?"

And the creaky grandmother said "Of course, sweetheart. Whatever you want, and then we can go see what kind of frozen pizza you want for dinner tonight."

Johnny zoomed over to the wall of 863 different kinds of pop tarts and chose the s'mores variety, jam-packed with wholesome nutrition, I'm sure. And he cradled the pop tarts in his skinny arms as they turned to head to the frozen food section.

Together, we arrived at the frozen food freezers, me and LL pretending to check out various varieties of vegan TV dinners, and Grandma and Jonathon investigating different pizza topping and crust options. Johnny was having a hard time choosing, even with Grandma making one suggestion after another.

He finally made his selection and we were off to the salty snack aisle. Johnny's little face looked up and down, back and forth, side to side at the stacks and stacks of snacks. And then I heard the little genius say "Grandma, I'm a little freaked out by all of these choices." Wow. Good call, Johnny.

A couple of weeks ago, we were camping and one family brought the ol' campfire favorite, marshmallows. But they weren't normal marshmallows. They were these absolutely ridiculous, jet puffed, super jumbo marshmallows. They were so big that once you stuck them in the fire to roast them, they expanded from baseball to volleyball size. It was nearly impossible for them to even remain on the slim roasting stick, weighty as they were. Though somewhat entertaining, the size of these marshmallows didn't change the product. What was wrong with the 'normal' sized and mini marshmallows? Why is there a need for these Jumbo's? Why do we demand all of these packaging options for the SAME STUFF?

I think it's just overboard, overload and plain and simple over-consumption by consumers to have a need and/or demand for 91 ways to wrap up the same exact product. I'm not saying I don't fall for it. Club brand crackers makes a mini version and guess who buys them? This girl right here. With some shame. But would I buy the regular size, perforated crackers if I didn't have the mini option? Yep.

I learned a little something from Jonathon...maybe something about 'less is more', maybe something about choosing simplicity over chaos, maybe something about expressing fear of too many choices.

I don't know, but I'm glad I melted those Jet Puffed Super Jumbo Marshmallows down and made them into rice krispie treats, because the bag on top of my refrigerator kept reminding me, in an annoyingly judgmental way, of how much we really have, when we really need very little.