Simply Convivial: Organization & Mindset for Home & Homeschool

Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio Blog, where we learn to walk more and more in fruitfulness and faithfulness in the midst of the mundane. I’m Mystie Winckler, homeschooling mother of 5 kids who are currently 15 to 6, and I write and speak so that I stay thoughtfully engaged in my family duties, learn to love what must be done, and organize my attitude – and I’m glad you’re joining me. My personality type – INTJ – is sometimes called the “least nurturing” of the types. That means that sometimes a list, a logical reason and strategic plan is actually the best and most effective way for me to do something as simple and supposedly natural as loving my children well. Of course I do have such a list. Bear with me as I share it. Maybe you’ll get some ideas that you will be able to incorporate naturally. Let’s dig in. Original post: 5 Habits to Show Kids Love So, as someone who is a compulsive list-maker and systematizer, but not a naturally affectionate type, I have a list to fall back on when I sense that I’m dropping the ball on communicating to my children that I love them and am so thankful to be with them day in and day out, even though it often feels like a madhouse. Are you fighting everyday to resist your inner two-year-old and learn to love what must be done? Me, too, and we are not the only ones. It’s a constant battle, but it’s one that causes us to learn and grow. It’s worth the struggle. Join Simply Convivial Membership and find community and camaraderie with likeminded women who can cheer you and spur you on in the daily work of diligence. With the anytime course material there to help you dig deeper and problem solve, the private chat community there to talk it over and troubleshoot, the weekly video session to get a mini pep talk and relevant Q&A, plus timely live course accountability & monthly topic themes. Whether you join for a month or two to complete a specific challenge or attend a live workshop series or commit to persistent baby steps to lasting change with a greatly discounted annual plan, Simply Convivial Membership is always open and ready for you when you need it. Visit Simply Convivial Membership to learn more. April’s theme is laundry, and all members have the option of participating in Sweep & Smile live – a 6 week course on tackling habit housekeeping routines. It’s practical, specific, and challenging. Join membership to access Sweep & Smile and so much more!

Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio blog! This is the place where we give ourselves a quick pep talk, preferably while doing a quick chore or two. After all, we want to stay engaged and alert, learning and growing, in our roles at home and in the world. While working to increase our engagement & attention, we might be tempted to squeeze every last bit of productivity out of our day, to the detriment of our attitudes, our minds, and our souls. Today’s post is about how a novel was instrumental in my own development and awareness as a homemaker. Let’s dig in. Original post: Read a novel. When we read novels, we are able to see the world from another point of view, experience different settings and lifestyles and circumstances, and are better able to see how small circumstances build into a big picture – into a story. There’s a reason Scripture tells us to not grow weary in doing good – that’s really a thing. We feel weary, but we’re called not only to persevere but to be zealous for good works. That takes planning, intention, and joy. It won’t happen on accident. We get weary because it turns out that doing what we ought, even just at home, is harder than we expected. It’s our expectations and our attitudes that are out of whack more than our stuff. Simply Convivial Membership provides you with the support and perspective that you need to dig in and practice not only diligence, but diligence with joy. Courses, texts, community, discussion, workshops, and more, are there when you need it – for as much or as little as you can handle at the time. Need to target a specific area? There’s a lesson for that and a place to talk it through with others. Visit Simply Convivial Membership to learn more. April’s theme is laundry, and all members have the option of participating in Sweep & Smile live – a 6 week course on tackling habit housekeeping routines. It’s practical, specific, and challenging. Join membership to access Sweep & Smile and so much more! Free Guide: Create a Personalized Housekeeping Routine

Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio Blog, where I share short, motivational pep talks I need to hear myself. Turns out homemaking, parenting, homeschooling is a harder gig than we anticipated, but here we are, determined to not grow weary in doing good but rather relying on the strength and grace of God to do our duty and even to stay cheerful. Thanks for joining me for this episode, where we will talk about a core concept and even a hot-button topic these days: keeping a growth mindset. A growth mindset is exactly what we need as we seek to improve not only our attitudes but also our skill in our work at home. Let’s dig in. Original post: Growth Mindset for Moms Our capacities are able to grow, but you must know and act upon that knowledge for growth to happen. It won’t happen automatically. Growth takes deliberate effort. Are you fighting everyday to resist your inner two-year-old and learn to love what must be done? Me, too, and we are not the only ones. It’s a constant battle, but it’s one that causes us to learn and grow. It’s worth the struggle. Join Simply Convivial Membership and find community and camaraderie with likeminded women who can cheer you and spur you on in the daily work of diligence. With the anytime course material there to help you dig deeper and problem solve, the private chat community there to talk it over and troubleshoot, the weekly video session to get a mini pep talk and relevant Q&A, plus timely live course accountability & monthly topic themes. Whether you join for a month or two to complete a specific challenge or attend a live workshop series or commit to persistent baby steps to lasting change with a greatly discounted annual plan, Simply Convivial Membership is always open and ready for you when you need it. Visit Simply Convivial Membership to learn more. April’s theme is laundry, and all members have the option of participating in Sweep & Smile live – a 6 week course on tackling habit housekeeping routines. It’s practical, specific, and challenging. Join membership to access Sweep & Smile and so much more!

Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio blog, where we practice managing our lives with fruitful, faithful resilience, overcoming distraction and discouragement, so we can glorify God in our work and our attitudes. Motherhood shifts our perspective on life. Today’s episode is a baby shower devotional I gave at my sister-in-law’s baby shower three years ago. In it I share good news, bad news, and good news about how we change when we become mothers. Let’s dig in. Original post: Mothers are children, too. Motherhood is one avenue for sanctification – one of many, but a very effective and intensive one. All the phases that will come and go are double-edged means. They are calls on you to serve God by loving and discipling your children through them and they will be tools God uses to love and disciple you. I’d love to have you join in the mission of Simply Convivial: to organize our attitudes and do the right next thing to glorify God and enjoy Him forever – starting now. Visit Simply Convivial Membership to learn more about how to do that. In January I collected some tips about brain dumps from members. Here are a few of them: Sue said: My thoughts tend to get jammed on the way out because there are to many that want to make their way out at once. Following the brain dump prompts has help me to put my thoughts in line knowing that each one will have its own time. Danielle gave this tip: I review my brain dump from the last week or so when i’m sitting in carpool lane or at kids gymnastic lessons. and my own addition: Don’t overthink the brain dump – it’s not a finished product, it’s a constant brainstorm Simply Convivial Membership includes not only my homemaking and homeschooling courses, all in one place, it is also a community of likeminded women, committed to growth and faithfulness amidst their full lives. We’d love to have you join us. Visit Simply Convivial Membership to learn more. And of course you can find that free brain dump guide by clicking below.

Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio blog, where we practice managing our lives with fruitful, faithful resilience, overcoming distraction and discouragement, so we can glorify God in our work and our attitudes. Sometimes the days are long and loud and trying, particularly when everyone is small and needy. Today’s post is one a wrote a number of years ago when no one was double-digits yet. It’s an intense time, and yet it’s also a fleeting time, it turns out. Still, we need strategies for surviving the moment. Let’s dig in. Original post: Nerves as raw as meat in a butcher’s window The point is not try harder. No matter how the movie scene went, inspiring words rarely actually lift us up out of raw nerves. Certainly, though, we must make sure we are looking at the right thing. Telling ourselves the right story. I’d love to have you join in the mission of Simply Convivial: to organize our attitudes and do the right next thing to glorify God and enjoy Him forever – starting now. Visit Simply Convivial Membership to learn more about how to do that. All February in Convivial Circle we’ve been talking all things weekly review and I have these member tips to share with you: Janet: “When there isn’t time for a “proper” weekly review I just answer one main question, “Am I ready for next week?” And if there’s a time I can answer “What can I do to make the next 2-3 weeks easier?”” Stefani shared: “Don’t worry about the time it takes to do the Weekly Review. These are decisions you are going to have to make anyway, so you may as well make them in a good mindset rather than by the seat of your pants later!” Kathleen also said: “My best tip for the weekly review is to keep the tasks truly limited for the next week instead of piling on, which I am so tempted to do. Piling on prevents me from saying, “Enough,” to the work and moving on to relax and recreate to a healthy degree. Love your limits. They bring freedom!” Katrina gave this advice: “Don’t give up. Just keep moving forward. Trying and failing is actually not failing. It’s learning what does and doesn’t work. Just take the next step.” Simply Convivial Membership includes not only my homemaking and homeschooling courses, all in one place, it is also a community of likeminded women, committed to growth and faithfulness amidst their full lives. We’d love to have you join us. Visit Simply Convivial Membership to learn more.

a troubleshooting session replay

Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio blog, where we practice managing our lives with fruitful, faithful resilience, overcoming distraction and discouragement, so we can glorify God in our work and our attitudes. The word hospitality, as it comes to us in English through Old French and Latin *hospes*, means being a host – a loaded concept in ancient times. Hosts have certain duties, and in learning about hospitality we learn about what we ought to do and be as homemakers. For to extend hospitality, there must first be a home. For there to be welcome into a family, there must first be a welcomed and welcoming family. Let’s dig in. Original post: What hospitality taught me about homemaking Manners are love in trifles, love in the small things. What small ways can we make our love seen and felt throughout mundane days? Hospitality gives us clues. And that concludes this episode of the Simply Convivial Audio Blog. To follow up, I highly recommend sitting down with pen and paper and brain dumping what homemaking and hospitality might look like in your situation. A brain dump is a sanity-saving and clarity-giving practice. You can learn more about it by downloading the free guide below. Start your brain dump now with my free guide with prompts and instructions to get you decluttering your mind today! And, in it all, remember that God’s will in our life is our sanctification. So, let’s Repent. Rejoice. Repeat.

Troubleshooting Session – 030119

Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio Blog, where we grow in faithfulness, cheerfulness, and resilience, staying engaged in our life at home because it’s where God has placed us to serve. I’m Mystie Winckler, a second-generation homeschooler now classically home educating my brood of 5, ages 15 to 6. We’re continuing to explore foundational educational philosophy with this episode, because what we believe about humans and about education matters tremendously to our work as mothers, especially if we homeschool. In this post I draw some more connections between classical educational philosophy and the work of Charlotte Mason. But it’s more than theory, it’s also imminently practical.   Original post: Classically Charlotte: The nature of children Our goal is not outward conformity, but a growth of the affections toward what is good and true and beautiful so that those strong fleshly appetites have less and less appeal and strength. And all children need that, regardless of their outward appearances, regardless of their temperaments or personalities. And that’s it for this episode of the Simply Convivial Audio Blog. If you need a handy cheat sheet with pithy and memorable quotes to help you keep your head in the game as a homeschooling mom, then you need an Alignment Sheet. Click the link below to download a free one-page quick reference of a handful of helpful quotes on this education project we’ve undertaken. Get started with a free attitude alignment cheat sheet that will help keep you focused on what matters: Then remember. Life is for God’s glory, not our own. So. Repent. Rejoice. Repeat.

Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio Blog, where we grow in faithfulness, cheerfulness, and resilience, staying engaged in our life at home because it’s where God has placed us to serve. I’m Mystie Winckler, a second-generation homeschooler now classically home educating my brood of 5, ages 15 to 6.    Today’s episode is a bite-sized piece of educational philosophy for you from Charlotte Mason on the nature of children. They are persons. As James KA Smith says, “Every pedagogy assumes an anthropology.” Or, in other words, every method of teaching is based on our idea about what a human being is and should be.    Let’s dig in. Original post: Classically Charlotte: Children are born persons Children are born as image-bearers of God, yet also subject to sin. They are not blank slates. They are not malleable, shapeless lumps of clay. They are not mere animals. They are not angels. They are people, persons, individuals, from the beginning. They are made in the divine image and are not made to be simply fodder for the economy. And that’s it for this episode of the Simply Convivial Audio Blog. If you need a handy cheat sheet with pithy and memorable quotes to help you keep your head in the game as a homeschooling mom, then you need an Alignment Sheet. Get started with a free attitude alignment cheat sheet that will help keep you focused on what matters: Get started with a free attitude alignment cheat sheet that will help keep you focused on what matters: Life is for God’s glory, not our own. So. Repent. Rejoice. Repeat.

Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio Blog, where we grow in faithfulness, cheerfulness, and resilience, staying engaged in our life at home because it’s where God has placed us to serve. I’m Mystie Winckler, a second-generation homeschooler now classically home educating my brood of 5, ages 15 to 6. I learned to apply the word impervious to being a mother from my long-time mentor, Cindy Rollins. As a mother of 8 boys – and 1 girl – Cindy gave practical, applicable advice. Don’t argue with them, she said; be impervious. Let’s dig in and figure out what that means. Original post: Be impervious. To be impervious is not to be stoic. Rather, it is how we become the thermostat rather than the thermometer, how we set the tone for ourselves and for our interactions. And that’s it for this episode of the Simply Convivial Audio Blog. If you need a handy cheat sheet with pithy and memorable quotes to help you keep your head in the game as a homeschooling mom, then you need an Alignment Sheet. Click the button below to download a free one-page quick reference of a handful of helpful quotes on this education project we’ve undertaken. Then remember. Life is for God’s glory, not our own. So. Repent. Rejoice. Repeat.

Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio Blog, where we grow in faithfulness, cheerfulness, and resilience, staying engaged in our life at home because it’s where God has placed us to serve. I’m Mystie Winckler, a second-generation homeschooler now classically home educating my brood of 5, ages 15 to 6. Today’s episode is a bite-sized piece of educational philosophy for you on classical and Charlotte Mason methods and why I think they’re grounded on the same philosophical truths, compatible sources of motivation, insight, and practice. Let’s dig in. Original post: Miss Charlotte Mason, classical educator Classical education is an education oriented toward the higher ideals that modern materialists don’t even believe exist, the primary ideal being truth. And Truth became a person. And Truth is evident in all His Creation. An education that aims at ignoring truth and focuses instead on shortcutting to results and outcomes will not get either, as should be manifest by now. And that’s it for this episode of the Simply Convivial Audio Blog. If you need a handy cheat sheet with pithy and memorable quotes to help you keep your head in the game as a homeschooling mom, then you need an Alignment Sheet. Click the link below to download a free one-page quick reference of a handful of helpful quotes on this education project we’ve undertaken. Then remember. Life is for God’s glory, not our own. So. Repent. Rejoice. Repeat.

Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio Blog, where we learn to walk more and more in fruitfulness and faithfulness in the midst of the mundane. I’m Mystie Winckler, homeschooling mother of 5, and I write and speak so that I stay thoughtfully engaged in my family duties, learn to love what must be done, and organize my attitude – and I’m glad you’re joining me. Today’s episode is number 15 in a series called 52 Ways to Organize Your Attitude. It’s all about entropy, which turns out to be a nerdy science topic super-applicable to homemakers and mothers. Too often we try for plans, systems, or cleaning that stays static and complete – that’s frustrating because it’s not the way the world works. Let’s dig in. Original post: Accept entropy as a part of life. Everything – everything – tends toward disorder if left untouched and unmanaged. If we accept that and build in times for maintenance and upkeep of our homes, our systems, and our family, we’ll find more fulfillment and satisfaction in the work we do. After this episode, I bet you need a brain dump to work out how entropy can shift your perspective. My free brain dump guide will help you empty your head so that you can refill and reframe with calm clarity. Then remember. Life is for God’s glory, not our own. So. Repent. Rejoice. Repeat.

Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio Blog, where we grow in faithfulness, cheerfulness, and resilience, staying engaged in our life at home because it’s where God has placed us to serve. This episode comes from the Organize Your Attitude series I did in 2017 - Know that life will change. Too often we think we’re doing something wrong when our plans or systems stop working, when really life has just moved on to a new place or a new season and we need to adapt. Nothing will work for forever; adapting and growing needs to be part of our game plan, included in our expectations. Perhaps it seems like if you start out knowing your efforts are only temporary and not going to last, you’ll start discouraged and think it’s not worth the time you’re investing. However, it could also have the opposite effect.

In this podcast, Mystie reminds us of the joys, challenges, and rewards associated with homeschooling and raising our middle school children.