Kristie McNealy, MD

2009 brought a lot of changes in the way we do things in the McNealy household.  I used my Christmas money last year to invest in cloth diapers, and as of this week, we’ve been cloth diapering for a solid year.  I still use disposables for travel and other odd times, but I can count how many packages I’ve bought for two kids over the past year on one hand.

After we made the switch to cloth for diapers, I decided to stop buying paper towels and napkins, to see what would happen.  Other than needing to stock up a bit on cloth napkins and kitchen linens, things went off without a hitch!  We did have some cloth napkins and kitchen towels already, so I’ve been able to add to my stash from clearance sales throughout the year.  I’ve probably spent as much on napkins/towels as I would have spent on two packages of paper towels, and at the rate we were going through them, that is NOTHING!  I haven’t bought a single package of paper towels, paper napkins or paper plates since last February.  Now I have a new addiction though – tea towels!

Right after that switch, spring rolled around, and we started our first real garden.  We also started composting, and are looking forward to the fruits of that labor feeding our garden this year.  We had a bumper crop of zucchini, as well as a good amount of pumpkins, cucumbers and turnips.  We got a few watermelon, some corn, and a few meals worth of potatoes, onions and carrots.  The weather and our dog was unkind to our tomatoes, but we learned a lot about growing them, despite the poor yield. The surplus from our own garden, as well as the CSA we joined also forced me to learn how to can!

2009 also saw us eliminate boxed baking products from our house, as well as most premade baked goods.  If memory serves, I bought 3 loaves of bread this year, and 2 bags of hotdog buns.  All the rest of our bread, as well as quick breads, muffins, cookies and pies came from our own kitchen.  I even learned how to make “poptarts” from scratch!

I think the changes we made in 2009 have put us on track for a much healthier lifestyle, but there are still other things we could be doing. With that in mind, here are a few of my goals for 2010:

• Converting my favorite recipes from white to whole wheat flour – We recently had the chance to buy organic wheat from a local farmer, and we gave ourselves a grain mill for Christmas.  There are some recipes I’ll never mess with (like these Christmas cookies), but I’d like to be making all of our yeast bread and quick bread/muffins out of whole wheat by the end of the year.
• Cutting back on meat and using more beans and lentils – We buy our beef by the side, from a local organic farmer.  Since it is always in the freezer, I have a tendency to grab it more than I probably should.  I won’t even tell you how fast we can eat a side of beef.  It’s a little scary.  In the interest of both health, and our budget, I’d like to start replacing some more of our protein with alternatives like beans and lentils.
• Cutting back on packaged breakfast cereals – One place where packaged foods still show up a lot around here is in breakfast cereals.  I try to choose healthier options, but we could still be doing better as far as health and the grocery budget goes if we ate more oatmeal, homemade granolas and other quick breakfast foods.  In that spirit, I bought some steel cut oats, ad I’m going to try my best to find a way to like them (any tips?).
• Develop a daily routine – For pretty much all of my adult life, I’ve been completely without a schedule.  Once I graduated from medical school, I became a stay at home mom.  I work around the kids, and my husband’s schedule.  I totally don’t have one of my own, and I think it shows when I’m typing this in my pjs at nearly noon.  With another baby due here any time, things aren’t going to get any better on their own, so I think I need to get my own act in gear, including being more diligent about meal planning, and getting on a daily schedule that includes time for homeschooling, my work, and exercise, as well as my daily household tasks.
• Giving the kids more responsibilities – In a blink of an eye, my oldest is suddenly 7, and our middle child is 4 and will be startig school soon.  They are definitely not babies anymore!  They have household tasks they are supposed to do, but I think my lack of a schedule has make me pretty lax about making sure their chores actually get done.  Now, the big girls will be responsible for making their beds and cleaning up their room before coming to breakfast in the morning, as well as sweeping and wiping down the table after meals every day.  This is in addition to pitching in when they are asked to help with laundry, trash or other shared duties around the house.

Those are my plans for 2010, which I hope will improve our health, reduce our stress and make the whole family more productive.  What about you?

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