Here are the ones I will be working on:
1. Composting. We finally have a yard! My husband promises to build me one of those cool three-box systems that someone posted in your recent guest post about composting, but for now we have a chicken-wire tower full of leaves. This weekend Aaron is going to make a new chicken-wire tower, and in it I’ll put food scraps, then handfuls of leaves from the leaf tower, then food scraps, then more leaves, etc. Should work until spring when he has time/motivation for building!

2. Ditching the dryer. When this mission happened originally, I was already hanging all of our clothes, because our apartment charged $1.50 a load to dry! Now that I’m in a house that came with a dryer I am finding it to be more tempting. I’m allowing myself to be lured by the easy temptation for now, when I’m busy trying to unpack, organize, and do finals, but I definitely need to get back to hanging!

3. Family cloth!! I said in that post that I was waiting until I had a house, and now I do! I have a flannel sheet that ripped through the center, that I will cut up to use. I was thinking that I’d just keep it in the master bath, but I use the other bathrooms in the house pretty often as well, so I have some logistical thoughts to work out.

4. Stress management. I gave in and started taking drugs for my anxiety. I’m hoping to use the time on drugs to learn better anxiety management skills, so that I can go off of ‘em after not toooooo long. I’ve been taking a bath most nights! (and worrying about the wasted water…)

5. Mantra. Even though I haven’t been doing it, I see the value and waaaant it!

It’s funny to read through your old resolutions, including “Get pregnant.”

Last year I had only one: HAVE FUN.

Yay for fellow vegans and fellow Portlanders!

@ erosan – Duuuude you are making me so jealous! It’s in the 40s and raining here and I have been craving papaya smoothie. And you can just go out and pick it for free! Humph!

I didn’t know what a lot of those fruits were either. Now I want to try all of them! When I come to the Yucatan you’ll have to give me a fruit tour. =)

@ Kelly H. – Oh no! I’m sorry that the calendar got lost, that’s a bummer! But yes, hopefully it did find a good home.

Also, thanks for sharing! All those links help. =)

By the way, one of your calendars I purchased for a friend was lost when I tried to “inter-office mail” it to her! I was quite upset at first but then thought…’hey! Now, there’s some joy and inspiration being randomly spread to some random part of our work environment (which is vast)!’ I’m sad my friend didn’t get the calendar, but I’m glad it will potentially be seen by many others. :o)

Take care!

Within 5 blocks from my office I can now count: 1 lime tree, 1 orange tree, 1 sour orange tree, 2 different varieties of mango (at least 7 trees, but only 3 are accessible), more tamarind trees than you could count, 1 mamey tree and 1 avocado (don’t think hass, think local variety which is bigger, firmer and with a bolder profile. http://www.yucatanadventure.com.mx/images/Avocado.jpg )

Near my house, I’ve found 2 lime trees (which is awesome, because green lime is a staple item in every mexican pantry, not that it is expensive, mind you, but it is certainly convenient to have a lime factory 1 block away… they produce more fruits than those the owners could ever use, the whole year round) and a little pomegranate tree on the side of the street, which I’ve never had luck harvesting (they always beat me to it.

I’ve also found ways to get access to some other fruits through some people… not sure it still counts as urban foraging, but: guava (at my inlaw’s), star apple (trough a friend’s neighbors), nance ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nance through a coworker) and red mombin (at an aunt’s which also used to have tree spinach, but not anymore). I recently got some plantains from my mom’s neighbors too (and am hoping to get more whenever I can). My mom also supplies habanero chiles whenever she harvests. :D

And I am constantly on the lookout for more trees… there is a cornucopia of food on these streets. I remember seeing papaya, sugar apple, chicozapote and chocolate pudding fruit when I was younger, so it’s just a matter of time until I find then again. I know this city has those fruits and more.

P.S. It took me some time to figure out how the hell half of these fruits were called in english! but at least I know now.

@ Melissa L. – What a beautiful comment, thank you. That just fills me with joy to hear. Good for you guys for making mindful changes; I’m truly honored to be a part of it.

Spreading the love does seem very appropriate for the season! =)

@ erosan – Oh lordy, the urban foraging in Merida must be off the hook! I’d love to hear more about your adventures. I can’t even imagine how much great stuff you must find!

@ Penelope – Aw, thank you. And welcome to the site!

@ Monika – Ooh, what are you reading??

@ Sarah – I totally hear you. Part of the reason I’ve held off on the book club is for that very reason – I need to pare *down* my life, not pile on!

I think ‘within reason’ is a great idea for a tat!

@ ActsofBeauty – Maybe someday there will be a Bonzai meetup . . . I’ve certainly thought about it! =D