I’m a sucker for improvement. Goals and challenges are my bread and butter. Though I’m a big advocator of making big changes the moment you realize you want to make them, I can also appreciate the anticipation of planning out smaller adjustments.
Every year, I print out what I call “Turley Traditions”. They’re small, monthly checklists that go in my command station. It started a few years ago when I was in the throes of baby + toddler chaos. I wanted to list out the monthly traditions that tend to slip past unnoticed. By doing these consistently throughout their childhoods, I hoped they would create lasting memories for my kiddos to carry into adulthood when making their own families.
Once the fog of postpartum faded, I added in date nights roughly every other month. Next, I started adding in monthly challenges to each. The challenges have changed yearly, and it’s fun to look back and see what was a struggle a few years ago is now just normal life. For instance, a few previous challenges have been to read a book a month, get outside at least an hour a day, and be active at least four times a week. I now regularly read a book or two a week, we completed the 1000 hours outside challenge in early November for 2025, and I workout at least five times a week – they’re no longer challenges to complete.
This year I want to focus on what matters most to me – my family. I want to stop taking our lives and each other for granted. I want to be a better consumer, a better person, and a better wife & mama. I want to spend more time & energy enjoying my family. I want to stop constantly looking for the next best thing. I want to cultivate a culture of contentment in our home & bring the focus back to each other. Most of my challenges reflect this, and I’ll do monthly contentment exercises as a boost. My challenges mainly revolve around being goofy with the kids and appreciating what we have. I try to keep the titles alliterative so they’ll stick in my mind. The actions themselves are tiny, but really add up.
This system may not work for everyone, and I’m sure I’ll continue to tweak it over the years, but I sure love it and have seen the results add up over the years.
Disclaimer/Reality Check: I was not this organized when I started out as a mama. This is the result of years of actively working on finding a system that works for me, and some months I totally fail the assigned challenge. This column will be about motherhood, community, plus creating and maintaining a home. Most importantly, I don’t ever want this column to make another mama think she’s not doing enough. If you’re reading this, I want you to know that you are, you’re doing great, keep it up. Sing it with me: no-one is doing it allllll!
