It's been 8 months since I made my 2011 resolutions. With the year more than half over (what?), here's how I've done so far:

• Go paperless and plastic-less in the kitchen (inspiration from here). Accomplished. We no longer use paper towels (we use flour-sack towels and cloth napkins, which I posted about here) and our overflowing tupperware shelf has been reduced to one basket of glass storage containers and a few good quality tupperware containers. We've also been pretty good about taking our reusable bags to the grocery store (I even found some reusable produce bags) so there's not an avalanche of plastic bags under the sink. Opening the pantry and seeing all of our mismatched tupperware used to stress me out, I was soo glad to see most of it go.

• Get outside more! And practice my rusty birding skills. Doing pretty well. When it was not so hot outside I was visiting the nature preserve near our house almost every week to walk our dog. I also went birding with a good friend a couple months ago and had a great time and learned some new birds. Cooler fall weather is on its way so hopefully I can fit in another birding outing - or two - and I really want to go check out Boyce Thompson Arboretum before 2012 hits.

• Save enough money to buy a (new to me) Prius. As of today I have $6,100 saved towards a used Prius and I'm on track to have $10,000 saved by the end of 2011 - but it will be close! After browsing Craigslist, however, I've realized I really need about $15,000 (minimum) to buy a newer model (2007+) Prius, so I'll need to continue to save next year. Recently I had to spend about $475 on the Volvo for a coolant leak and minor oil leak. It really seems like it needs a repair every few months and it's so hard to part with money that I'm saving towards a Prius - arg!  But in the end I still think it's the best thing to do. At this point I would have to borrow money to buy a car and I'm hoping to avoid taking on any more debt. Hopefully with the most recent repair the Volvo will be set for awhile...*fingers crossed*

• Write some pen and ink letters and send some snail mail love. Doing OK. I've written some letters using the fancy return address stamp that I bought, and even got some letters in return! I'd love to write a few more letters before the year is done.
  

Here's to spending time outside, saving money, and writing letters in the last 4 months of 2011!

P.S. I'm excited to share a guest post from Chris tomorrow!