The Christian Homemaking Podcast: Simply Convivial with Mystie Winckler

Why do we do what we do? Sometimes, an end result can look the same even when the motivations behind the action are opposite.

Keeping short accounts leaves no room for resentment, no room for bitterness. It also means that even in the midst of argument, I am more careful in how I express myself, or where I let myself go — better to not sin in the first place than have to ask for forgiveness and make it whole and right again. It also means I can express myself openly and honestly and have confidence that we are both striv...

I set the timer for fifteen minutes. Surely in fifteen minutes, I thought, I can make a difference in this room. The room was mine. The mess was an assortment of laundry, books, accumulated junk, out-of-season kids’ clothes, and random bits. I knew there was no way I was going to finish cleaning the room in fifteen minutes, or even that day, but I had to make a start.

When the Bible says things like “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” God means it. It’s true. It’s what we are to strive to attain, and what we need to confess when we fall short. There are no excuses, only repentance.

What happens when we organize something? It gets messed up. Inevitably. We catch up on the laundry, but more clothes hit the hamper within hours. We wash the dishes and clear the counters, then dinner is over and the kitchen is in ruins, with stacks of dirty dishes. We put the kids’ closets in order, but by the end of the week the neat stacks are in shambles. We put our own closets in order, but t...

I don’t feel guilty for not doing the things that I have to do, I feel persecuted that I have things to do. The pesky homekeeping tasks should just all evaporate and leave me be, leave me to do whatever I want, whatever I feel like, all day. Stupid housework. Down with housework! Up with play! Housework is boring.

My tagline is “organize your attitude,” because I think our own mindset as moms is crucial in our homes. This theme fits well here, too, because an organized attitude is at the root of having a convivial home .   

Sometimes “purposeful” and “intentional” can turn into “taking oneself too seriously.” Anything that doesn’t go as planned (and isn’t that usually most things?) is a temptation to discouragement or at least to the laser-eye of analysis. Instead, it might just be a reminder that God is in charge and we are not, and we need to be willing to laugh at ourselves.

We really must begin with organizing our attitude before we organize anything else. We might think that making a plan and working a plan is all about the planner, the app, the method, but the truth is that how we think about our planning going into it matters tremendously.

I wanted answers, a formula, a guarantee. Do this. That works. This will guarantee results. I thought it was a dichotomy. Either what I do as a parent will guarantee certain results or how I parent doesn’t matter, is inconsequential. It was either find the Right Answers or give up.

Many of us are task-driven. We want to see things done, accomplished, finished. This is what the world tells us is productivity.

What your homeschool looks like, even as you try working toward classical education principles , depends on where you’ve been, and how and when you entered this path. There are no gate-keepers checking your credentials and only letting you in if you use the approved materials. And that’s a good thing. This week, we’re going to be sharing how these principles play out in our homes. We’re all differ...

Season 4: Brain Dump to the Rescue Brain dumping is such a helpful strategy, especially for moms at home. When we start holding a lot of things in our heads, trying to remember them is going to stress us out. It might just be a low-level stress we don’t even recognize, but when we get the details out onto paper, we will recognize the relief. So then, when you have that Brain Dump, especially that...

So, what is education? What is it this task that I have signed up for? I’ve been collecting quotes on the topic for several years; when viewed together they paint an inspiring yet daunting picture.

Season 4: Brain Dump to the Rescue You won’t remember – don’t try. When does the brilliant idea strike? When do you remember you’re desperately low on milk? It’s rarely when you’re actually sitting down, pen in hand, to make a relevant list. But if you don’t write it down right away, it’s gone. Hence, the need for ubiquitous capture. Ubiquitous capture is a term from David Allen’s Getting Things D...

When does the brilliant idea strike? When do you remember you’re desperately low on milk? It’s rarely when you’re actually sitting down, pen in hand, to make a relevant list. But if you don’t write it down right away, it’s gone. Hence, the need for ubiquitous capture .

Musical education is soul-craft: carried out properly, it tunes the soul and makes one receptive to truth and goodness.

So, you’ve done a thorough brain dump and you have sheets upon sheets of notes, tasks, and ideas. Before you start getting your brain dump into a trusted system, you need to have that trusted system set up – you need those places and lists before your brain dump items can go into them. To get the thorough instructions for creating the systems you need, walk step-by-step through the course. For a m...

I am almost done reading The Liberal Arts Tradition , but I know I have at least two more posts in me for this one. I feel like I understand the liberal arts aspect of classical education so much better now, and that foundational understanding makes it easier to make choices come spring curriculum-planning time. I so much appreciate how the authors draw out classical education as a stream with eac...

Brain Dump to the Rescue Whenever you feel overwhelmed or scattered, sit down and brain dump. First, pick a place to keep your notes; either a notebook or index cards or Evernote, whatever thing would be convenient for you and just easy to jot things down. It doesn’t have to be structured – it shouldn’t be structured. It’s just a quick ‘get it out of your head and onto paper’ so that your head can...

Although the idea of classical homeschooling can be intimidating and appear unreachable, it is far more down-to-earth than we might think. This task is not too lofty for us, homeschooling moms with households to run; in fact, our very lifestyles are an asset, not a hindrance. If you’ve ever thought you needed to focus more on character than your curriculum checklist, you might be more classical th...

A complete and thorough brain dump is an integral part of both the Simplified Organization Self-Paced Course , and Work the Plan . Lately I’ve had a lot of people ask questions about it, so I thought I’d answer those questions together in a short video.

A label is a tricky thing. Just when you decide to take on an adjective as an identity, you find people including shades of meaning that you don’t personally want to own. For this reason, it’s common now to eschew labels altogether and call them useless and misleading. However, I think we should be comfortable generalizing and allowing ourselves to be generalized.

As the holidays wind down, the crazy schedules should let up and let us catch our breath. But if we were whirling all month from thing to thing, trying to track presents and events and guests and extra baking and so much more, we feel more like crashing than catching anything. Write it all down and get all your swirling, swimming thoughts out of your head and onto paper. You’ll be amazed at how si...

Isn’t homeschooling a sure way to drive an extrovert mom out of her mind? It depends on the homeschool and on the mom. As an extrovert homeschool mom you can set up your schedule and methods to take advantage of your strengths and fully come alive in your role. Here are five ways to do just that.