100 days

The one hundredth day of school is quickly approaching.  I can't believe I've made it!  I'm pretty proud of myself.  I think I might celebrate on that special day with gold fish crackers, marshmallows and pretzels.  I deserve it.

The kindergartners will be observing their first 100 days of school by dressing like they are 100 years old.  Jack came home and told me all about it.  He's really excited about dressing up.  I suggested we make a long white beard, this is Arkansas, this is how the old men roll.  Anyone enamored by the big beards on TV clearly doesn't live in Arkansas.  Here they are a dime a dozen.  You can't go to Walmart without bumping into 6 of these guys and their camo overalls.  Anyway, we live here, so let's do this thing!

Jack also had an AWESOME idea...

He wants to shave the center of his head and keep the bald man band of hair that connects the ears.  Dude.  This is brilliant.  If anyone can pull it off, it's Action Jackson Ellis.  He thinks it will be perfect.  I do too, assuming I don't get the day mixed up again...

I told Mike the plan.  He threw back his head and laughed.  Then he said, "Becca.  I'll tell you what you are thinking right now." 
"Go."  I tell him.
"80% of you is thinking:  That would be so awesome!  You think it's a great idea."  --spot on, I tell him.  He continues: "But then there is 20% of you that says, 'As his mother, I'm not sure if I can let him do this.'"   It's like he read my mind.  Whoa. 

He then tells me he is going to be hands off on this one.  It's up to me to decide. 
I know, long story, and I haven't yet decided if we are going to give him a "balding man" then bic the rest of it that night.  Yikes.  Are we down with that sort of commitment?

We've tabled the discussion for now, we'll see if the topic of the hair comes up again.

Tonight, since Mike is absent, we ate sweet potatoes for dinner.  That was all.  Sweet potatoes.  I was tired. Sweet potatoes are healthy.  Done.

I talked them up with the kids then gave them options of nuts, marshmallows and brown sugar as toppings.  Custom made dinner, they thought they were at burger king.

We all sat down at the table where we blessed the food and then began eating.  Everyone ate the first couple bites without much protest, but after a couple minutes I could see the excitement waning.  Oh boy.  Time to pull out the: "Did you know how nutritious sweet potatoes are?  I've heard they are the most nutritious vegetable there is.  It really surprises me that they are even more healthy than spinach cause they taste soooo delicious." 

Yep, I said all that.  Jack is going to town on his, you don't have to tell him twice.  He's always been a good eater --I love that about him.  The other three, however were needing even more encouragement.  I pulled out my iPhone and googled the nutritional value of sweet potatoes.  I read about all the vitamin A, C, calcium, foliate and potassium.  I kept going and found that beta-carotene plus the vitamin A make sweet potatoes a skin superfood.  They combat the free radicals which result in skin aging.  I saw this and translated to for the boys:

"Oh, it says here that some of the vitamins in sweet potatoes make people look younger."

Jack gasps, slaps himself on the forehead and says: "Oh man!!!!"

"I've got to look 100 years old in a few days!"