Author: Mackayla Turley

My maternal grandmother lived to an astounding age of 104. While that’s impressive in and of itself, her independence was even more inspiring. She mowed her own lawn into her late 80s. She cared for a garden and took multiple-mile walks well into her 90s. She grocery shopped, cooked, cleaned, and was generally independent at an age most people don’t even make it to. Was it genetics? Maybe. Was it her eating or sleeping habits? Possibly. Personally, I think it was her activity level. Grandma was active, and current research backs up how important that is. My generation grew up…

We’ve all heard of the 3R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle. They were taught in elementary science classes, put on banners for various milk jug and soda can tab collection drives, and generally emphasized throughout the 90’s. I feel like all three branches of the 3R’s were equally highlighted in my childhood, unlike environmental movements today. Recycling has stolen the spotlight these days. Reducing and reusing have been pushed to the side – out of sight, out of mind. Economically, it makes sense for companies to focus on recycling. Consumers buy a product, use it, then get rid of it via…

Our family loves picnics. Eating outside with friends is great, and not cooking in the summer heat is amazing, too. We’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple months picnicking with friends at local parks, each other’s houses, and poolside. Prepping for picnic season is easy; I put the picnic blanket in the back of the car and restock the cooler backpack with essentials – napkins, grocery bags for gathering trash, and kid scissors for opening popsicles. Our whole family loves finger foods, so for the most part, we just put together a bunch of snacking foods and…

Laundry. It’s never ending, and left unchecked it’ll get out of out control faster than an unsupervised toddler with a can of shaving cream. I’ve tried a lot of laundry methods to wrangle the washings and have finally settled into a routine I love. The key for our family has been small wardrobes and daily up-keep. Each kiddo has roughly ten tops (or dresses for the girls) and five bottoms – shorts in the summer, jeans in the winter. They usually only have one or two pairs of shoes, and a swimsuit for the summer that gets replaced by a…

I’ve written about screen time as an adult – now it’s time to face the bigger challenge: kids’ screen time. It’s getting out of hand, y’all.A six year old does not need a smart phone.A ten year old does not need a facebook or instagram profile. Kids can be taught to eat at restaurants, go to a grocery store, and be in the general public without being handed an iPad. I’d even go so far as to argue that’s the only way they will learn how to behave appropriately in those situations. I know it’s a hard pill to swallow.…

Years ago, I read a poem and it’s been stuck in my head ever since. Dust If You Must by Rose Milligan is certainly worth looking up and committing to memory but it doesn’t quite capture my life circumstances right now. (What’s snow? Swimming a river? I wish!) With that in mind, I tweaked it a bit and printed to put in my closet for a daily reminder as I get dressed. Here’s my version: Dust if you must, but wouldn’t it be betterTo color a picture, or write a letter,Bake some bread, or plant a seed;Ponder the difference between…

The highlight of our summer will undoubtably be an upcoming road trip to visit family…though you wouldn’t know it when assessing the preparations for said vacation. I am the clothes packer, snack prepper, and entertainment planner for our trips; as I’m sure most moms are. This means a few days before we leave, I will get out the duffle bags and shove pretty much the kids’ entire wardrobes in. I’ll last-minute grab myself three t-shirts, two pairs of shorts, a few underthings, and tell myself that doing laundry on a trip is inevitable anyways. Hubby will be in charge of…

We are facing a screen time epidemic. I’m not talking about the kids – though the studies about adolescent screen time are damning and worth discussing. I’m talking about us: moms, grown-ups, adult society in general. How many hours of your day is spent looking at a screen? How many hours of your year? How about of your life? Screen time is tricky- it provides short-term enjoyment, but the opportunity cost is missing out on long-term development, growth, and enjoyment in many areas of life. Everyone’s seen the eye-catching, dramatic statistics before. We’ve all heard how the average person spends…

 If you’re really, really lucky, you have a friend that makes you a better person. Not just improves your life – that should be all friendships – but pushes you to grow and improve as a person. I must have wished on the right shooting star as a kid, because I have a couple of these friends – over the past few months they’ve really shifted my views on priorities, parenting, and community overall. Who you hang out with really influences your values, behavior, and thinking…which is how our family ended up putting in a commercial-strength tetherball in our backyard.…

At this point, I’m hoping my column has convinced you to pare down the items in your home to a manageable level. If it hasn’t, maybe click back to the Clear the Clutter article and give it a re-read. Once everything has a home within your home, it becomes a matter of resetting to baseline. After all, just because you’ve jettisoned the junk and cleaned the crevices doesn’t mean the rest of your stuff won’t get used and moved around, nor will dust stop accumulating or kid spills magically clean themselves. I keep the house in check with a morning…