New Year's Resolutions

     As many others have done, I too have made New Year's Resolutions.  I tried to make mine a little less generic than that of, say, "losing weight" or "being nicer" or "being a better person." Granted those are all valid resolutions and by no means am I looking down, but personally, I need something less cliche.
     So what were my resolutions? Well, as I typed and retyped them while writing this post, I discovered that they were just glorified versions of what I would refer to as cliche.  But at least I have admitted it, so I guess I am no longer in denial about it, so I guess we can move on.
     Resolution #1: To revert back to my days as a practical Catholic. (Catholics that have never been practical Catholics would call this being a "good Catholic," however, I was raised Southern Baptist, so I was taught that there was no such thing as a "good" Catholic, but that deserves its own post, so, moving on)  When I had first converted to Catholicism I was very involved in the church. Attending weekly Mass, observing Holy days of obligation, so on and so forth. Then we had kids, and that ritual began to slowly fade.  We then became the Catholics you only see at Christmas and Easter.  This year, I am going to change that.
     Resolution #2:  Do a better job of being a husband (read: comprehend the words coming from my wife's mouth that are directed toward me).  And the words that aren't directed towards me as well.  As a male, I have a highly developed auditory system. So advanced, in fact, that I can choose what I want to hear and cancel everything else out.  The wife finds this to be very annoying, especially when I ask her for the 5th time about anything.  Granted, we just had an addition to the family back in May, so I am still adjusting to the new dynamic, not that I am making excuses, because I am, but I like to give myself the benefit of the doubt, especially when it comes to the use of commas.  My wife is an amazing woman. She is a miracle worker with the kids, me included. I love her, I need her, and I have resolved to do a better job of showing her that.
     Resolution #3: Cook more. Have you ever seen the movie Julie and Julia? Well, not cooking like that. That's crazy. But at least cook a meal three nights out of the week. I'm not that bad in front of a stove so this shouldn't be a problem.  I just need to make a game plan.
     Resolution #4:  Build my skills as a photographer.  At the moment, I would technically be classified as somewhere between enthusiast and amateur.  I picked up a Nikon dSLR about 2 years ago and it changed the way I looked at things, so becoming better at this venture to the point of generating modest income would be nice.
     So thats it. Those are my resolutions for the new year.  It's day one. How am I doing, you may ask?  Well let me enlighten you!
We skipped mass because we are all sick with sneezing, coughing, and everything that is on the Nyquil commercial,  I made a flippant remark to my wife which didn't make her a happy camper, and I did not take one single photograph today. Not one!  As a matter of fact, my only saving grace comes from my wife asking me to make this southwestern dip that she had bought at some fair. So technically I did cook something. Although it had so much cheese in it that it that my arteries began to soften a bit just recently.


Well thats my first post for you wandering readers of the blogoshere.  May your New Year be blessed.