7 Quick Takes Friday, #33

1. I had the weirdest random conversation this week. At a small grocery store, while checking out my few items, I yawned. It was a polite yawn - silent, mouth covered, trying not to open too wide. I thought nobody even noticed it, but I was mistaken.

"Shallow breathing," said the older man at the cash register.

I looked up, not sure if this diminutive man had really spoken at all, and if he had, that I'd heard him correctly.

With my brow furrowed, I said, "Uh....w...what?" I was truly stumped.

"Your yawn there..." he clarified. "It means you're breathing too shallow. You need to open up your diaphragm and let your belly pooch out to get your lungs filled up with oxygen-rich air. I'm a personal trainer." He went on to explain the physiology behind true deep-breathing techniques and a certain book by a certain author he wanted to recommend.

All the while, I was nodding and glancing around to see if anyone else thought it was strange that I was getting breathing tips from a personal trainer/grocery bagger. I just couldn't fathom two seemingly unrelated professions being housed in the same body - in my local mom & pop grocery store, no less.

He was very polite, not pushy - just informative. But it wasn't until later that I could clear my stereotyped associations far enough to realize what I should have said in response: "Well, shallow breathing, sure. But it's the shallow sleeping that comes with being a mom of two little ones that I think does the trick where my yawns are concerned."

Or the past-my-bedtime-blog-surfing. Either one.

2. Remember the craft I mentioned in last week's quick takes? We made it! Mia loved doing most of it herself and thinks it's the cutest thing since Lauren Jade. I'd have to agree.

Here's the link to the super simple instructions again, if you'd like to do it yourself.

3. When I was talking with Mia about our plans for the pumpkin, she piped up with another suggestion. She wanted to make a spiderweb. With a really REALLY big spider. Since it was, after all, the first day of fall ("It's fall's birthday, mama!"), I was on board with any themed activities matching my favorite season.

So we put together a spider and a web. Because I am totally cool with spiders dangling from my doors.

4. In the car, driving past the hospital where Mia and Lauren were both born, Mia surprised me with this conversation:

Mia: Mama...I think I want another baby, OK?

Me: Oh you DO, do you?

Mia: Yeah. Uh, actually, I want three babies.

Me: You DOOOO, do you?

Mia: Yeah. I want a baby Chloe, a baby Jack, and a baby Lauren.

Me: So, you want Lauren and two more babies? A boy and a girl?

Mia: Uh-huh. Can I please have them?

Me: Wow. Maybe, I mean, if daddy, I mean...

Mia: I got a sucker today, mama!

Me: oh thank goodness

5. One of Lauren's favorite new games is hide and seek. Always in the same hiding place, she stands still and giggles in between yelling 'Momeeee! Yor-yeeeen!' (Her pronunciation of her own name.) If she's lucky, she can convince the whole household to play along with her.

She is lucky. But so are we.

6. Our weekends are starting to become clogged and booked up with parties and fall activities. This weekend, for example, we've been invited to 4 separate events. Most of me likes it. I like the pumpkin patch visits and fall parades and outdoor parties and the whole fall season. I like being included in fun things, having something to do. But another part of me wonders...

Will my house ever get to be cleaned from now until January? I count on weekends to do some deeper cleaning than I can do during the week by myself with both girls under my feet.

I guess technically, I could use the preschool hours for that. But - nobody ever liked technically.

When would I get to be lazy?

7. I've decided that I cannot cook a good steak. Last night I tried to grill steaks on my cast iron grill pan. First off, I marinated them for a few too many hours...but hoped for the best. Then I got the grill pan too hot so that the steaks were nearly burned on the outside (lookin' just about right to my well-done steak loving self), but a bright, raw red in the middle. No pink anywhere. Disgusting all around. Even my husband (the medium steak loving man) couldn't handle the redness in the middle. We put them back on for a few more minutes, but I still couldn't get the memory of the rawness out of my mouth.

And with that awful mental image, I bid you a happy weekend! Visit Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes.