7 Quick Takes about Creative Ways to Make Ghosts, Speaking in Fourth Person, and Living in the Coolest Orphanage on the Block

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

—1—

This 7 Quick Takes is brought to you by my 4- and 6-year-old, who collaborated to create this portrait of me:

The wispy purple hair makes me look about 40 years older than I actually am, but other than that it's pretty accurate.

They presented this drawing to me so earnestly I almost hurt myself trying not to laugh. I'm not sure what's better: my serial killer smile, my unevenly dilated pupils, or my mile-high forehead.

When my kids draw something that's my favorite (which this clearly is) I save it and mark their name and age in the corner, but when I went to save this one I wrote BOTH of their ages down wrong on the first try so maybe I actually am as crazy as this lady looks.

—2—

The middle school play was this past weekend and we needed to send in treats for intermission refreshments.

Last year I outdid myself by buying packages of Oreos at the grocery store on the way to the performance and re-wrapping them in Saran wrap in the parking lot. This year, the director mentioned that "specialty treats" sell better, and the idea popped into my head that since the play was about ghosts we could make little ghost cookies.

The only problem was that we didn't have a ghost cookie cutter. It's not exactly the right season to find them at the store. I texted the craftiest person I know to see if she had one; she didn't. What to do?

After some serious Winnie the Pooh-style thinking, I found some leftover wire fencing in the basement, bent it into the shape of a ghost (which my 14-year-old drew,) and MADE a cookie cutter.

They actually worked and we only burned half of the cookies, so I'm going to be riding this high for a while.

—3—

My 10-year-old is in the cub scout pack sponsored by our church, and this week they had their Blue and Gold banquet. (I think it's technically supposed to be in February, but usually how things work in our church is if you speak up and complain about something then you get asked to plan it next time, so that's all I have to say about that.)

Every cub scout was supposed to bring a cake representing an assigned part of the Scout Law, and his was "kind." After some preliminary Googling we settled on a heart-shaped cake. My son had some serious vision about how it should be decorated, and it looked amazing after he'd frosted it and topped it with whipped cream and strawberries.

Then the whipped cream started to melt.

We put it in the fridge to stop the hemorrhaging, but it kept melting until most of it slid clean off the cake and all that was left was a puddle of whipped cream on the plate. We were able to wipe it up and make it look presentable for the banquet, but it truly was only a shadow of what it had been before.

At least it still tasted good.

If you look closely, you can still see the residue of the whipped cream around the strawberries.

Also, at the banquet a little girl ran up to me, handed me a wadded-up tissue, and asked, "Can you take this?" I apparently look so much like a mom that I'm now sending off signals to other people's children that my purse is a receptacle for their trash.

I mean, I totally did put her tissue in there until I could throw it away later. But still.

—4—

I'm not sure how it started, but my middle-schoolers made up a new point of view called 4th person. It's a little hard to understand but highly entertaining to listen to once you get it.

Basically, if I wanted to speak in 4th person then I'm identifying as you. And therefore, I identify you as 'me.' So instead of "You can't possibly know how I feel," in the 4th person you'd say "I can't possibly know how you feel."

Once you've wrapped your brain around that, plural pronouns become singular ('we' turns into 'he,' she,' or 'it') and vice versa. So if someone is annoying you and your group of friends and you find that highly annoying, using 4th person you could comment that "We are bothering her and you don't like it at all."

Fourth person probably wouldn't fly in a creative writing class, but it's an interesting storytelling mechanism nonetheless.

—5—

There's a children's farm about a half-hour from us that everyone raves about, but it costs a million dollars to get in so we've never been. But we found out about a field trip there at a discounted price through a local moms' group so we finally went this week!

Everyone was right, it was awesome. Here the kids are, petting the world's cutest sheep:

Seriously, LOOK AT THIS SHEEP'S FACE. It's like a little anime creature.

My kindergartner skipped school so she could come, too, but I didn't remember to call the school and tell them she would be absent until we already arrived at the farm. So my message on the attendance line had sheep bleating in the background, which was not suspicious at all.

—6—

This week was also the elementary school art show, and though I of course enjoyed the fine art created by my own children, I was transfixed by these beautiful lilies made by another class of kids.

I have no idea how they did it, but I would buy these for my living room wall. (Owen and Tate, if you're reading this, text me and we'll talk.)

I've been to many a school art show in the last decade, but I can honestly say this is the first time I was compelled to take pictures of a complete stranger's kid's artwork.

—7—

A while ago I mentioned to a friend of ours who happens to be a builder/contractor (and also sold us our house) that we had this strange dip in our yard, and he showed up with a mini-excavator to dig it up and figure out what was causing the problem.

That's my finger in the upper corner. Because it's not like I blog and take pictures for a living or anything.

A few of our kids went out to watch him work, then they went back inside and a few other kids came out, and then the neighbor kids wandered over to see what was up... it looked like we were running an orphanage.

That's the fun part about having a big family. Not even your friends know how many kids you have, they just know there's a lot, so you can mess with them like that.

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