Happy New Year!

Good morning and Happy New Year to everyone! May 2008 bring you health, happiness and the wisdom to know what to do in hard times. As I've said, one of my goals for 2008 is to do a Big Year list of birds I observe. Lily and I are going out this morning to get started on this list. That's partly because Mandi's working until 7 and needs us out of the house so she can sleep, and also because the gym is closed. But I really do want to get a good winter time list to help reach my goal of 150 for the year, so today promises to be a fun day in that regard.

With regard to the blog, I have set a few soft goals for 2008 that I should tell y'all about. I plan to dedicate one post per week going forward to cooking and recipes. We've made at least 10 new recipes since my last post about them, but since Mandi broke the printer I've been procrastinating getting them into the computer. But it's a new year and my focus will be better, so look for new recipes on the site around Thursday or Friday of each week. I also plan to reorganize the list so that new items are highlighted and they're grouped together by categories, rather than just listed on a page. That should make it easier if you're looking to try something new.

In light of the Big Year, I'll do one post per week about birds (at least). I'd say this will be typically a Sunday or Monday post, as the weekends are usually best for me to get out and do some looking. As usual, I'll try to include a good photo or two with all of the posts.

So I hope your black-eyed peas and collard greens were tasty yesterday, and that you set reasonable expectations for yourself with your resolutions. Nothing takes the wind out of your sails more than realizing you set a goal you'd never be able to achieve. Remember the old saying "How do you eat an elephant?"

"One bite at a time."