Intent. Aim. Resolve.

After neglecting my blog for a full year, I've decided to make an effort to pick it up again this year.

The last time I did resolutions (according to my calendars, which is where such things would normally go) was sometime around 2005, and that looked more like a to-do list (friends to have for dinner, items we needed to acquire, etc) than a set of goals for the year. I just don't like setting goals I'm unlikely to achieve, but for some reason, they keep coming to me this year. Disclaimer: Some of these are unlikely to actually be completed in 2011, but they are bigger goals that I'm shooting for.

Without further ado, The List:

1. Catalog library using goodreads, or a similar site and purge bookshelf of the superfluous.

2. Keep track of books read. I can do this easily to an extent with books I borrow from our library because my account on their site tracks everything I've checked out and maintains a record for me. I need to add books that I read from my shelves or that I borrow from others, and have wanted to do this for several years, but haven't been good at keeping up with it. Actually making notations about or a review of each book would be amazing too, but we'll try baby steps.

• My reading goals this year are: 10 Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, Housekeeping, Vanity Fair, The Dance of Anger, The Wealth of Nations, Faust, The BFG, Island of the World, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Unsettling of America, Inside of a Dog and Ivanhoe. Some of these will be audio versions and others paper...some might even be kindle for my phone or something else. They're in no particular order, and although I didn't entirely pick these books at random they're all part of a larger list of things I want to read. I've tried to keep this list to 12 or so books, and I keep thinking of ones I'd like to add, but inevitably there will be changes, so we'll see how the year goes.

3. Organize house. See what I mean about unattainable? I think this year I'd be content with going through the bedroom and hallway closets and sorting, organizing, & donating lots of things.

4. Find a doctor. The MD type....the ones that simultaneously scare and irritate me. Incidentally, this was one of the items on my 2005 list. Oops.

5. Track my health better. I've been seeing a wonderful homeopath this year. She's helped me to essentially normalize my sleep schedule (relatively), get through one bout of not-pregnant-but-everyday-morning-sickness-for-months-on-end (we're working on the second now), and to feel more energetic than I have in years, but every time I see her I feel like I'm missing huge chunks of "what's happened" in my body over the previous month because I'm not keeping track of things like headaches, nausea/vomiting, stress, energy-level/fatigue, etc.

6. Hang pictures. We have bare walls. Still. And I have lived in this house since 2004. And I am married to an excellent photographer. And we have inherited some lovely watercolors from his artist-grandmother. It is time.

7. Listen to music more often. Should this even need to be on a list?

8. Start Obedience or Rally competition with Brembo, get her canine good citizen certificate, and point some conformation points on Puffin (I'll introduce the "new" baby formally later). This is halfway for 'Chung, because I think obedience competition with Brembo is something he'd enjoy doing with her and because we need an excuse to take her to shows with us. Can I resolve something for someone else? Probably not.

9. Participate in the 52 weeks of Pets photo challenge, and use it as an opportunity to learn how to use 'Chung's fancy camera...properly. Here again is a resolution that may depend heavily on my handsome hubby because I'd like to try having him teach me to use the camera (again) rather than taking a class or teaching myself. We'll see if he's game. Otherwise I'll try to do the 52 weeks with my baby digital.

10. Introduce more variety into Brembo's diet. Hopefully, I'll do a future post about this, but she essentially eats nothing but beef. She needs a larger repertoire.

11. Blog more. (Could I blog any less than I did last year?)