The Christian Homemaking Podcast: Simply Convivial with Mystie Winckler

One cannot rejoice if one is weary, exhausted, and cranky. And let's face it, 2020 has probably left us all three. So if we want to have any semblance of a productive 2021, we will need to renew ourselves. And how does that happen? Through the Word, of course. That is the point of this season: to renew ourselves, not necessarily through the copious consumption of candy, but through the memory and...

2020 was a weird, hard year, but God was still doing good work through it all. We need to take the time to notice and appreciate in gratitude God's good work even amidst the confusion and difficulty. Before planning the coming year, we need to process the previous. Let's do that together through this guided practice.

What have you done with 2020? Is it relegated to being the punchline of every joke? If it is, then you need to review what actually happened, what you got done. Everything has a purpose, and 2020 was the harsh wake up call we all needed.  Too often we focus on the negative: everything cancelled, political turmoil, etc. etc. It's easy to see that. But that's not what we need to look for. We need to...

What is the key to festivity in your household? Is it the Christmas tree, laden with ornaments? Perhaps it's the constant supply of fudge and candy, threatening your kids' teeth with cavities. What if it was none of those things? Mystie explains in this video that the key to festivity is your festivity. As the idiom goes, if momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. So strive this holiday season to b...

While we enjoy spending time with our friends and family during this jovial season, we must keep our priorities and attitudes correct. These are holy days: that's where the word holiday comes from. What makes them holy, you ask? We are called to remember God's place in our lies, how He provided for our forefathers in Plymouth and how He came down, incarnate, to save us from our sin. This is the re...

How can you enjoy your kids more? Sure you love them and all, but do you enjoy them?  What does enjoying your kids even mean? Does it seem to make your children objects, rather than human beings? It shouldn't. Smile at your kids, but more importantly, smile with you kids. Watch your kids, but don't just watch them, listen to them. There are many things vying for our attention, but don't get distra...

Kids love to play. That's a fact. But is it your job to play with them? That seems.... tiring. Mystie Winckler tackles this question on today's episode of Help for Homemakers. The answer may surprise (and relieve) you.  Turns out you don't. Your job is not to be a child, that time has past and gone. More often than not, a grownup trying to enter into a spirit of play with the kids dampens the mood...

If you've ever tried to break bad habits and build better ones, you've probably worked hard at consistency. We want to be more consistent, but what if more consistency is not the secret sauce we actually need? What if it will never work?  Today's episode, on the podcast and on the YouTube channel, is all about choosing perseverance over consistency - and how and why it's more important and more ap...

We all feel exhausted, but with the right perspective and attitude we can keep up the good work God has called us to because we have our trust and hope in him and not in our own accomplishments.  The end of the day is when we ought to be tired because we've been pursuing the good works God has set before us. When we're tired at the end of a long day at home, you know what we need? We need to go to...

We all often feel tired, even exhausted, at the end of the day. So we wonder - Are we doing something wrong? How do we find the strength to keep going, day after day, and not give in to despair or fatigue? We can build up perseverance by practice, when we practice the right things in the right way. We all feel exhausted, but with the right perspective and attitude we can keep up the good work God...

Simply getting more done does not actually matter. We need to be doing the right things and focusing on what's important, not superficial results. We don't need to be fully functional machines, cranking out widgets; we need to be well-watered trees producing abundant harvests of mature fruit. How we think about our lives and what's on our to-do list matters. This month, we're reorienting our think...

Maybe you start off homeschooling with grand visions and high hopes. Maybe you change your approach and your style and think that will fix the bad days and the bad attitudes. It turns out that even in spite of best laid plans, principles, and practices, we’re teaching real children. They don’t always like what they should. They don’t always want the true, good, and beautiful. Sometimes (oftentimes...

IF you are obeying the One Whom you ought to obey, you will be happier, because you'll be doing what you were created to do.

You don't necessarily need to add more productive hours into your day. You need to add more true rest to your day if you want to manage your time better.

Mornings can be hard. These ten tips will help you be ready to start your day strong.

Learn more at https://www.simplyconvivial.com/membership

Get help living this out in the day to day: https://www.simplyconvivial.com/membership

All the time I hear and see the question: How do you, as a busy homeschooling mom, make the time to read? 

Yes, they ask because they want to know how I fit in reading, but more broadly, they ask because they want to know how any mom even possibly can. It feels difficult, nigh impossible at times, and we can wonder if now is just the wrong season for trying to get any reading done at all. 

Perhaps you've been told that as a mother, you need to write a vision statement for yourself and your family in order to succeed. In this video, Mystie Winckler discusses the efficacy of vision statements and their inherent flaws in providing purpose to a Christian mother. The fact is, you don't find your vision statement deep inside yourself, but through the Bible and Christ. So instead of lookin...

1. Have a creative hobby. God is a maker, and we are little sub-makers. Being creative is human. Having a creative outlet helps us feel connected and whole. Knitting, baking, sewing, sketching, painting, gardening, writing, decorating: finding a way to make beauty is actually a very important outlet that we need. The book Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer develops this very well, giving...

Are you always busy yet never getting to what seems must be done? Do you feel pulled in a million directions all the time? Inside Simply Convivial we clear away the clutter not only in our homes, but also in our hearts and on our to-do lists. By sorting through what's actually going on and what's actually needed, we each are able to figure out our own callings and how to dig in to those with cheer...

Especially as stay-at-home moms it can be so hard to know how we're doing because we look at the standards and the definitions of success that come from the business world or the personal achievement world. We know those are not our worlds, yet we don't know where else to go for an understanding of how to get more done, how to better influence our people, and how to measure our successfulness. Let...

There really is no such thing as time management. There’s only self-management. You don’t use your time better and end up with more . Usually it seems less time because of how we spent it, though there are things we can do to maximize what we get out of the time we have. Time management is all about the decisions we make regarding our time, decisions for ourselves and not the time. Time is externa...

How to menu plan 6 weeks at a time. Take stock of what’s in your freezer already. I had a ham, some pork, and beef soup bones in addition to the chicken breasts and frozen meatballs I usually have. Fill in any special days coming up: birthdays, eating out, friends over – if you already have plans on certain days, mark those. Decide on some standard day-of-the-week dinners. We do chicken on Mondays...

Dinner happens every day (or at least I think it's supposed to). So what can we do to make that process easier, simpler, faster? Today, we're going to talk about a few techniques that will help you get dinner on the table with less effort and in less time. We want the “making of dinner” to be easier, right? When we're looking for kitchen tips and shopping trips and menu planning ideas and meal pla...