leaving winter behind

- buy only local dairy
I think I can check this one off as achieved, for the most part. I ended up buying cream cheese the last week of the quarter- but other than that- check! A new dairy farmer has been at the farmers market, so i've increased the locality of the cheese I buy (while increasing the price I pay no doubt) from Walnut Creek (near Cincinatti) to Galliplos (about 20 min south)




- take one out of state, non political, trip
While I did not make it to Michigan, I still left the state and headed to DC with my sister and her family.


- learn to rock climb
Fail. I tried it once with a friend (and made it to the top of the wall!) but it never really worked out after that. I tried to sign up to take it as a class next quarter but didn't get my pink slip in soon enough and it filled up. Blast!

- make bread twice a month
You betchya!

- cook three real meals a week, one with a friend
i at least accomplished this, but likely cooked more often- lovely!


- camp in the cold





- go to two unitarian church services
Check and check!

- work with a community based project (not student based)
No excuses, but this didn't happen either. Yikes.

- read one not-for-school book
Read more than one!! I read (listened really) A Peoples History (Howard Zinn) and NonViolent Communication

- enjoy the moment!
harder to say, I certainly wasn't always able to encompass this- making post graduation plans inherently makes this hard- but i think i stayed conscious of it and enjoyed more moments than i normally would have

- take one trip to visit Ian
indeed I did, on January 14- woo!

- take care of myself, mentally and physically, better
Better than the past at any rate- I ran at least twice a week and skipped school/work at least twice to stay in bed when I was feeling on the verge of illness. I was sick sick 0 times, which is pretty amazing!

- put people first, remember my priorities
another one that is hard to quantify, but i think i really tried to remember my priorities- and perhaps the best example was going on vacation with my nephews during week 10- putting hanging with my family before school!

- continue to reduce the items i own
i have a pretty huge pile of things for the clothing exchange in april. have some serious work ahead of me though as far as getting rid of things still!

- get a passport
well, no. turns out my mother lost my birth cirtificate. which, means i should have gotten a copy of that- which i also failed to do. looks like this one is getting moved to a spring wish list.

- line dry every load of laundry

I did! Not a single load of laundry went in the dryer! (thought, I had to wash a load twice because I was too lazy to hang it up in a timely manner, so i'm not sure it held the conservation standard i was going for)




- do at least one, non transportation- outdoor activity a week
prior to it being nice outside, i can say on average this happened, but it didn't happen every week. If i include nice weather- then it happened a lot more! I did take two backpacking trips this quarter- so that's a bonus for the time spent outdoors!


(waterfall near our camp site, the first night in Big South Fork, Tn)



- Saturdays are free days. no work, no way.
With the exception of the OSEC steering retreat, I stayed clear of all work on Saturdays. Very successful.


and soon i'll have a new lovely list for spring up!