ANOTHER blog? OMG, srsly?

I know, I know. Everybody and their dogs have blogs now. Everybody except me, you mean. And if I'm one thing, it's a sucker for peer pressure. That's not the main reason I'm blogging, though. I'm blogging for purely selfish reasons.

The first is that I've been terrible about documenting Asher's life. I take lots of pictures, yes, but my Asher journal is pathetic. It has approximately six entries in it, all of which are sentence fragments. I always think, "Oh, I'll remember this," but all I remember is thinking that I'll remember. I forget what it was I was supposed to remember.

The second is that I, as you know if you read my "about me," have a lot goals, toward which I take very little progress. In my head, I have all sorts of interests and skills. I'm a regular Martha Stewart/Ansel Adams/pioneer woman with a sprinkling of elite athlete mixed in. In my head. In reality, I get stymied every time I try to pursue a new goal by feeling like there is too much to learn, not enough time, etc. etc. All the usual excuses. But no more, I say! If there is one thing I learned during my 6+ years of psychology grad school, it's that one way to succeed at your goals is to make yourself publicly accountable. So, though I'm no big Oprah lover**, think of this as my online dream board. I'm going to blog about what I want to do/be/accomplish, and voila, it's going to happen.

(** Ok, full disclosure, I USED to be a huge Oprah lover, a few years ago before she became such a know-it-all, and all her interviews became just an outlet for her to talk about her personal quest for self-improvement. Back then, I wanted to be the next Dr. Phil. I was going to find a way to parlay my psych degree into being Oprah's relationship expert. But then she got really, really annoying, and my dream died. It's probably Oprah's fault that I ultimately decided not to be a career psychologist, actually.)

So along those lines, a few New Years resolutions:

(1) Work on my photography. I really, really, really want to be a good photographer. I want to take beautiful, artfully composed pictures of my children and maybe, one day, other people's children. So far, I've upgraded my camera and taken one photography class. What I want to do next is buy more lenses so I can have more control over my shots, but this is one of those situations where I get mired in the information overload and make no forward progress. But I resolve to read my new photography book I got for Christmas and do all the necessary research so that I can have my next new lens by Mother's Day.

(2) Start cooking again. I like to cook, but ever since my husband started his paleo diet (which deserves, and will get, its own post), I've lost the motivation to cook. I'm sure there are lots of delicious, even interesting, paleo-friendly things I'd enjoy cooking if I made the effort.

(3) Run a race. Even if it's just a 5k. Next year, my goal will be to train for a sprint triathlon, but for right now, just one race will do.

(4) Successfully grow some vegetables. My gardening skills (or lack thereof) will also get many posts I'm sure. Suffice it to say, my garden plants have no will to live. This year, though, I'm going to grow enough to can at least one jar if it kills me.

That's it for now, but this list will evolve through the year. I feel no need to keep the resolutions to 1/1, although it's a good place to start.

Thanks for joining my on my long, circuitous journey to become the person I actually am in my head.