I don’t make many New Year’s resolutions, but the ones that I do make – I usually keep.

And so for this year’s resolution I decided that I was going to make sure I wrote a column in every single issue of The Countywide, come hell or high water.

After the birth of our third child almost a year ago, time for such dalliances as column-writing became rather scarce.

There is just something about that third child… all of the sudden we are outnumbered!

When it was "two on two" it seemed we could manage, but now that there are three kids and two adults under our roof, well, it’s just… a whole lot… different.

My wife is in the same predicament.

She enjoys column writing but she just can’t seem to find the time, anymore.

I have tried my best to get her to make the same resolution I made, but I have not been able to convince her yet.

Many times when I’m out in public, I’ll run into folks – sometimes perfect strangers, who will say, "I sure miss reading your wife’s columns."

Rarely, sometimes, as an afterthought, they would add, "Oh! And I miss reading yours, too!"

I always tell these folks that I also miss reading her columns and that I would pass along their kind remarks of encouragement.

The reason I’ve decided to make this my New Year’s resolution is because I enjoy writing these columns, and I miss it, and I know that if I don’t make it more of a priority, then the columns just won’t get written.

Through making this promise to myself, and to you, the readers, I know that now this sometimes self-indulgent, often strange monologue, will (hopefully) become a part of my weekly routine that won’t get set aside anymore.

I hope this is one of the resolutions that I’m able to keep.

Resolutions can be great little promises that we make to ourselves in efforts toward self-improvement, but I know that sometimes it’s easier to break these kinds of promises than the ones we make to other people.

Here’s wishing you a great 2008 and for those of you who made resolutions, I hope you are able to keep them.