1. Annabelle had an eye doctor appointment last week. She was very nervous leading up to the appointment and the number of questions she asked while in the chair showed that she was still nervous. She did well at her eye appointment last year but this year I let her bring in her stuffed turtle, Sonny, for moral support. I don’t remember what she asked, but as the doctor checked her out he said, “You’re pretty smart.” She sat back in the seat, shocked. “You can tell I’m smart by looking into my eyes?! You can look in someone’s eyes to know if they’re smart?!”

2. I had my eye appointment yesterday. Historically I don’t perform well at the eye doctor. The perfectionist in me comes out hardcore and I spend an unnecessary amount of time trying to determine if I’m looking at a D, and O or a Q. Then the considerate part of me pipes up and tells me I’m wasting the doctor’s time and I need to wrap it up. Then the perfectionist side and the considerate side start to battle it out and no one wins. The doctor was doing the whole “Do you like 1, 2 or 3? This is 1. This is 2. This is 3. Which is better? Let’s go over them again.” but they were all foggy. I know I have horrible, terrible eyesight but it hadn’t gotten that bad in a year. Then I realized that my mask was fogging up the little circles I was looking through. I had to hold my breath while reading off the letters. Eventually, I said that the mask would need to go. I would not get the wrong glasses because a mask was messing up my life in yet another area. Then we had to restart the whole test. I told him about an issue I’m having seeing my cross stitch and he said I don’t need bifocals yet, but I should pick up reading glasses. Reading glasses! He said near vision gets worse in the 40s and 50s sometimes it starts a little early. I already feel like I’m 108 years old when I do cross-stitch. No need to add insult to injury by suggesting readers.

3. A friend invited me to another friend’s small 40th birthday dinner. I don’t know the birthday girl well so I strongly considered canceling last minute but I went and I’m glad I did. I do this to myself every time. My introverted self doesn’t want to go and thinks of twelve reasons I should stay home. I make myself go and 9 times out of 10 I’m glad I did. I forgot how fun it is to see and laugh with other people. We covered a wide range of topics including, but not limited to, the ‘rona (does anyone talk about anything else these days?), politics, potty training, children learning about body parts, Publix offering Kelly $700 so she wouldn’t sue them after she fell in front of their ice cream section, and companies rebranding. We talked in particular about Aunt Jemima and the lady on the Land ‘O Lakes butter box. You know who would be THRILLED TO PIECES to have her face on a box of butter? Me. I love butter with all my heart and soul. If Land ‘O Lakes is looking for a new face to slap on the box, look no further than yours truly.

The only picture I could find of myself where I wasn’t holding AB I’m holding a doll. I don’t know why.

4. Related to the above, I have decided on one of my lowkey goals for this year: I am going to sample and rate every brand of butter I can find in our town. I’m keeping my few goals very achievable and I feel good about this one.
4a. My other goal is to lose weight and it’s possible that my butter goals might hinder that. Nevertheless, I press on in the name of science.

5. Grandma turned 93 on Friday. She’s as spry and entertaining as she ever was. I love that she’s wearing a bow of some sort. My love of hair accessories is in my blood.

I have her wedding portrait hanging in my hallway and I thought it would be sweet to send her the same flowers she had in her wedding bouquet. They happened to be delivered while I was on a video call with Mom and Elizabeth who were at her house so I got to see her reaction. I guarantee you she wouldn’t have recognized them as her wedding flowers had I not told her, but she loved it once she knew. It was white lilies, white poms and white crysanthamums.

6. We took our Christmas decor down over the weekend. We don’t put it up early so I like to enjoy it longer on the back end. Generally this makes the house feel cozy for weeks but it isn’t the same feeling when it’s 60* and sunny out. I asked Christopher and AB to take down the fake tree in the living room while I was at the eye doctor. This morning I walked into the dining room and the real tree was gone. I was shocked. I thought the Grinch took the tree and stuffed it up the chimney. I completely forgot we had that tree when I said the tree needed to be taken down. I only intended for the fake tree to be taken down. We paid good money for the real tree and I intended on leaving it up until the last needle fell off. How I didn’t notice the tree was gone yesterday is beyond me. I might need to put down my cross stitch, polish off those readers and look in the yellow pages for a brain doctor.