Looks are deceiving

The other night Nancy served warmed up chocolate chip cookies from Trader Joe's topped with expired Bon Bons and borderline okay whipped cream that sounded like poop when it came out of the can as she squirted and twirled out the last bit with a bunch of air making funny fart sounds....she topped it with perfectly fresh carmel syrup squeeze bottle topping. nancy served this to michael black and jonah when they asked to go to Cold Stone's at 10:30pm the other night and she didn't feel like taking them nor did she feeling like spending the money.
both boys were very impressed with the beautiful presentation of the platter. nancy wanted to deflect the boys away from the desire to go out. nancy thinks Deflection is one of the best tricks in the psychological book. when somebody wants something you can't give them...just distract or deflect for a bit and see if they still want it 2 hours or 2 days later. if they still do, then it's worth considering. deflection as filter for shunting out what one needs to really really respond to and aDress...and what one can discard or at least put lower on the list. michael (the guest) of course politely said Thank You Nancy..this looks great. even the visually distractable Jonah chimed in "wow".

here the boys are enjoying cereal the next morning...that nancy worries has moths in it. (addendum: nancy took a better look at this photo in Photoshop and realized she had undersold herself. the boys are eating Fresh Paninis she made them with perfectly under-expired no-nitrate Ham and Cheddar/Jack combo cheese purchased within the last two days...squished to perfection in her panini maker with healthy olive oil on fresh whole grain sour dough bread from Trader Joes. so there!!)

but back to the honesty of the previous moment/image/carmel platter....jonah knows better. jonah knows his mom. the fancy dessert wasn't lost on him. he tasted a bon bon. it had freezer burn. he asked how long they'd been lying around. i poker-faced "hmm. not sure..." though i was indeed sure they weren't fresh and that's the point. would it hurt them? no it wouldn't. do bon bons go bad? thankfully he didn't even mention the possibility of the whipped cream being sour. i tasted it. it was...pretty much okay. with all the carmel slathered over it.

i go through these mothering decisions all day long. worrying i'm not really up for the job...but deflecting negative self loathing voices with jokes and things that Look Good. just like the girl in Fred Segal the other day who wore really really short shorts and chunky heels to show off her great gams and distract away from her meeskeit face....

smoke and mirrors. hotpants and dark glasses. carmel and bon bons.