Trying to be Healthier

I'm trying something new today. I just put all the stuff in the pot for chicken stock. It now has to simmer for several hours, but the house already smells all warm and homey. I've never made my own stock before, but since we've started raising our own chickens, I feel like I should use them all up. It's partly the time and money investment, I suppose. It's also partly in our efforts to eat healthier. I've pretty much always just used bouillon cubes when I have had recipes that call for stock. But in the effort to help our family eat healthier, I've been trying to use less processed foods, and I guess those are as processed as you can get. Chicken broth isn't square!

So far, having our own chickens hasn't saved us a bit of money. We have fed them for seven months and have probably had about 2 dozen eggs off them and two chicken dinners. But we like knowing that we are eating healthy foods that have been ethically raised. My daughter loves going and collecting eggs. Actually we all do, but considering we only get two a day, it's whoever manages to visit the coop at the right time and most often, it's her!

We're doing a few other things to try to eat healthier. We planted some fruits trees at the end of last year. We've got a bunch of strawberry, blackberry and raspberry bushes ordered for the spring. My husband has been poring over the vegetable gardening books so we can make a second (and hopefully more productive) attempt at a garden this year. We need to cut WAY back on fast food--that's a big thing we have fallen under the convenience of. We don't buy soda for the house anymore. I've been trying to make more things from scratch and rely less on premade/prepackaged things.

So what have you done or do you plan to do to make your family healthier this year? I love reading about what other people are doing because it just gives me more ideas.