It’s 2012 and if the Mayan calendar is correct, I better make good use of the next 333 days. As always, I decided to make a few New Year’s resolutions, but with a slight twist. Gone are the resolutions of establishing a workout routine, saving more money, eating better. Those should be givens throughout the year, not something you embark on at the outset and later carry as a backpack full of guilt.

My first resolution is regarding my three blogs: Red Swan Diaries, Leave the Stilettos at Home and 8 Days a Week With Eleanor. Red Swan was created as a means to keep me in the writing flow while serving as a therapeutic online diary, and a place for me to share and plug the publication of my short story collection and novel. After striving for a year and a half to publish my collection and meeting failure, I started to focus on writing my novel. But, in life there are distractions and obstacles and I haven’t written a page in almost six months. Plus, I rarely find the time to update my blog or even feel the urge to write.

My Stilettos blog was created for me to post and vent about my passion for sports, but as with the personal blog, I’ve found that unless I carve out time immediately following a game or sporting event, the excitement and need to write about it is gone and I’m left with the guilt of “I really should’ve posted something.” And the final blog, Eleanor’s blog, follows the sometimes-more-exciting-than-my-own life of my 10-year old black lab whose accounts proved to be much more popular than my two personal blogs combined (Eleanor had more subscribers and viewings in her first month than the other two had in six months).

So, my resolution is if I do not update them on a monthly basis, then I will put them to an end, cancelling my accounts with WordPress and ridding myself of the daily guilt of “I should’ve posted.” That being said, consider this the post that will extend the life of Red Swan Diaries for one more month.

My second resolution is to immerse myself in my home state. For years I’ve wanted to spend one Saturday a month visiting towns and counties of the great state of Kansas. While I am a Kansas native, I admit I am unfamiliar with a large percentage of this midwestern  jewel I call home. So, Brad and I will pick a town once a month, fill our travel mugs with coffee and set out on a Kansas adventure. We’ll taste the local cuisine, visit local shops, learn the history of the place, and take photos, which should all provide some writing material for this blog, if not a book.

And my final resolution is to spend more time with family and friends. From our family reunion in July, I learned that time spent with family is never enough and is vital to who we are. I believe this is the same with friendships. I want to spend as much time as possible with the people I love, so to kick it off for 2012 I bought tickets to the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in St. Louis. The tournament is in March and I’ll be sharing a suite just blocks from the Scottrade Center with my dad and sister. I know the three of us will have an incredible time cheering on our beloved Shockers, watching some great Valley basketball and just being together.

2011 is long gone and whether we’re ready or not, we are moving forward. I plan to make the best of it, because if the Mayan calendar is correct, I’ve got some serious life to experience in 2012. And even if this world doesn’t come to a crashing end on December 21, I’d like to be able to greet 2013 surrounded by the people I cherish and with a toast of no regrets.