At midnight, when I gave that man-of-mine our traditional New Year's kiss, I sincerely hoped that 2012 was going to be the year that I finally evolve into the person I long to be.

You may know her. She's that organized, punctual, and thoughtful human being who exercises daily, doesn't curse or gos-sip, does her daily devotions first thing in the morning, sends hand-written notes, prepares nutritious meals from scratch, discards last month's magazines when the current issues arrive, and only has ONE junk drawer.

Unfortunately, when I woke-up about six hours later, I knew that once again I had set my expectations way too high with far too many resolutions.

Last year I actually did pretty well with the resolution thing. Honing advice from several magazine articles, I only made one-making sure the kitchen counters and sink were cleaned before I turned in for the night. Okay, so it didn't help me become That Per-son I Long to Be but I really do enjoy starting my mornings at a clean kitchen counter.

Unfortunately, last year's success went to my head and my lofty ambitions got the best of me. Four days into the New Year and I'm already backtracking. Therefore, I'm going to start the New Year all over again, sans Dick Clark and all that confetti, with a more specific and less lofty resolution, as I did in 2011.

Thus, my resolution for 2012 is…DRUM ROLL PLEASE…making sure that before I turn in each night, the dining room table is free of mail, magazines, notes, and all other parapher-nalia, like my camera and notebook, which have a way of ending up there. I'm also attaching an addendum that deals with cleaning out the upstairs closets in the event I nail the table thing within the first month or two.

If I could get that man-of-mine on board, I'd go for the kitch-en table, too. However, when I suggested the possibility I could tell from his, umm, demeanor that it wasn't an option. And, I can somewhat empathize. After all, what goes better with morning cof-fee than the newspaper, a few woodworking magazines, junk mail, and a couple of Tool Time brochures?

As he strode out of the kitchen, he asked, “Why do you do this resolution thing each year, anyhow?”

Why? If I remember my mythology correctly, resolutions have something to do with the Roman god Janus-the founder of Janu-ary. Supposedly, old Janus, who had two faces, was tasked with guarding the doors of beginnings and endings. Bet he could have used the help of a couple of hefty bouncers. Anyhow, somewhere along time, Janus set the precedent for looking back to plan ahead. We took it from there and started making a big deal about resolving to do things differently in the New Year.

Although Janus was supposedly of the male gender, the hubby has me questioning whether making resolutions might be a woman thing. After all, the only change that man-of-mine might consider for the New Year would probably have something to do with the oil or transmission fluid in his truck.

Maybe I'll never be organized and punctual, or That Person; but, I truly believe that the New Year is a great time to reassess; turnover a new leaf; clean the slate; eat black-eyed peas, and, yes, make resolutions.

So, this year I'll be taking on the dining room table. If suc-cessful, next year I'll sign up for the junk drawers.

Interestingly, I just realized that the hubby got his truck in-spected today and looking over the receipt, I see he got the oil changed, too. Hmmm, maybe change is in the air. Reckon there's any chance he'd reconsider the resolution thing and I could add the kitchen table? KNOTT MUCH.