Simply Convivial: Biblical Homemaking, Homeschooling & Mom Life—Without Burnout

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanMore tips here: https://www.simplyconvivial.com/2019/how-to-grocery-shop/Improve your grocery shopping skill! These 3 grocery store tips will save you time and money and make grocery shopping simple. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanWatch the "Save Time in the Kitchen" Workshop! https://www.simplyconvivial.info/pantryI know it seems overwhelming.I know even just planning dinner sometimes seems overwhelming.But, seriously, who wants to wake up and decide in the pre-coffee fog what to feed the troops for breakfast?It has to be decided ahead of time.Everyone talks about how much planning out dinners saves you from mental effort and decision fatigue, but that’s only 1/3 of the meals you feed people! Imagine if all the meals were planned – how much mental effort and decision fatigue would that reduce?Personally, I think the reason we balk at planning all the meals is that we build dinner menu planning into this herculean effort. Do we want to do that 2 more times over? No way! But if we simplify not only the two lighter meals, but also the dinner effort, we can have our plan and our peace of mind as well.Make an Easier Dinner PlanYou don’t need to have elaborate dinners every night to have a complete, healthy meal. Try thinking in threes and keeping easy to prepare vegetables always on hand. Rather than browse Pinterest or magazines to come up with dinner ideas, keep a list of your family’s go-to meals. Or, use Simplified Dinners, which is your list and guideline already put together.Make an Easier Lunch PlanLunch, whether you have to pack it or pause the other business of the day to prepare it, it always seems to get in the way. While taking a lunch break is refreshing, taking the time to prepare it is not.Make an Easier Breakfast PlanBreakfast hits us out of the blue, first thing in the morning. Rather than rolling out of bed without a clue about what to feed the troops, you need a plan in order to get things moving without feeling out of control.A solid breakfast starts the day off on the right foot, so planning it is essential. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanWatch the "Save Time in the Kitchen" Workshop! https://www.simplyconvivial.info/pantryDoes menu planning seem impossibly hard? It really can be. So today let's talk about a simple way to make it easier. We will talk about building your own meal templates that will take the thinking out of menu planning. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanDo the Daily Card Challenge: https://www.simplyconvivial.info/daily-card/What if you made a plan, you picked your real top three priorities for the day, and then you did none of them and you have no excuses. There is no good reason why you didn't do what you ought to do. Are we just bad planners or are we just hopeless? No. Neither.How do we make progress without giving up and without making the same mistakes, again, figuring out the mistakes we made so that we can learn from them. That's the important lesson that we need to talk about and need to figure out.What if you just didn't do the right thing? What then you are not worthless or helpless or hopeless. You are just normal human, maybe tired, maybe worn out, maybe burnt out. Maybe there's some kind of roadblock preventing you from getting those things done that you haven't identified. There all kinds of reasons that the top priority things don't happen. Sometimes we just don't have the energy or attention that we need to make them happen. Sometimes the high priority task actually has to take a back seat to catching up on sleep or maybe doing an exercise program. I know, I know don't shoot the messenger, but the reality is that we need to be sure that the fundamentals, the foundation of our productivity is taken care of before we can have that productivity to work in before we can get some of those big things done, we need to have sleep. We need to have energy. We need to have the time available. And sometimes we just don't have those foundational pieces. And so we have to scale back our expectations and focus on building the building blocks of managing life. Before we do the things that give us progress. Sometimes we don't really have any excuse at all, though. It happens. It happens to me. And I know it just happens to all of us. We just don't do what we ought to do. No good reason, no excuses. And that just needs to be confessed repented of before God who has given us the time he's given us the responsibility is he has given us the resources. And when we don't use them, when we just get stuck in self-indulgence or a lethargy or acedia, we can turn to repentance, which is not beating ourselves up and feeling bad. It's confessing and turning from the sin and asking God for the forgiveness and the grace and the motivation to move forward to obey. And he gives us the ability and the strength when we don't have it ourselves. And sometimes that's the lesson that we need to learn. Sometimes we need to recognize that we were trying to move forward and work in our own strength. Sometimes just making decisions or purchasing materials, just little steps that actually have to happen before the big project can move forward before the actual task can get done.Turn what you think is one task into a project and list out every single step and then identify what is the one next thing that needs to happen out of these various steps. Pick one that's next and break that bigger overwhelming task down into just a getting started task. And a lot of times that is all we need to start seeing traction and getting some momentum. We just haven't broken things down into small enough pieces to actually manage and move forward. The daily card is a great way to make that happen because we can just flip it over and use the backside to brain dump, to figure out where you're stuck and why write down a prayer, write down the next, the real next step so that you can figure make a better choice. Tomorrow. The daily card really is the planner that we all need to see some progress in our day to day life. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanFree 5-Day Daily Card Challenge: https://www.simplyconvivial.info/daily-card/So you've been using the daily card writing down your top three or what you think are your top three, but then other stuff comes up. Was your plan a waste of time? What do you do when your top three is not what you do in the day?So, so often when we get those top three items chosen and we write them down on our daily card, something else comes up and we don't do those things. Not because we were lazy or self-indulgent or apathetic, but just because other stuff came up, other priorities took precedence. That does not mean that the daily card doesn't work. It doesn't mean that it's not the right option for you. It just means that we're learning what life is like. And we are living the life that we are given, not the life that we are making or trying to claim for ourselves. And that's a better option to live within the Providence of God and recognize that he sends his plan, which is often different from ours. And so, even though we are making a plan to attempt to identify our top priorities, sometimes we're wrong. Sometimes we don't have enough information. And so a big way that the daily card can help us is when we use it to, to actually identify and remind ourselves, tell ourselves of where our plans need to be, where our attention needs to be. And that's sometimes the things that we would not normally count, but it really is our primary responsibility for that day. Sometimes it's just errands, just doctor's appointments, just chauffeuring, children around cheerfully, and maybe using that time in the car to have conversations with them. Sometimes it's just feeding and clothing people, and a read aloud or audio book would be a good bonus. We can use our daily card not to create the life that we think we ought to have or write down what we think we ought to get done, but really out of everything, out of all the options, what's the best way we can spend our time today and identify those and write them down. And at the end of the day, if what we wrote down does not get done, we can ask ourselves really truly is it because I picked the wrong things, what were the right things? And maybe write those down instead, like cross out what you wrote and write down the priorities that actually happened that day. And over time, we can learn about ourselves, about our life and about how to make an appropriate plan for the current season in life that we're at in the current responsibilities that we have. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanFree 5-Day Daily Card Challenge: https://www.simplyconvivial.info/daily-card/So I have one planner secret that will make all the difference, no matter what planner you use, even if that planner is just a post-it note, there is a secret that applies and makes that planner actually useful in your day-to-day life. You're ready. You've got to look at your list and you've got to do what it says. I know ground breaking, planning secrets here. Stay tuned for more where that came from. A post-it note is great because it's small. And so it reminds you that your day is finite and you have to make some tough choices about how to spend that time. The other benefit of using a post-it note or an index card is that it is portable and portability helps with visibility. We need to be looking at our planner throughout the day. That's not a write it and forget it kind of an activity if we want that plan to actually make a difference in our day. So a great way to keep your post-it note handy is to pop it on the back of your phone or stick an index card in your back pocket. If you have a planner or a calendar that you like, and that you do use a post-it note can be a great addition because you can stick it on the calendar and see your calendar, as well as your top three for the day. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanSo often we try buying a new planner, printing a new planner, creating a new planner from scratch in hopes that the planner will keep us on track. But the reality is that it's actually our time and attention to what's written to filling it out and then looking at it that makes a planner work. The format of the planner, the colors, the layout, the options are sometimes more of a distraction and a hindrance than they are a help to us getting more done. Sometimes the amount of space and options in a planner actually makes us too optimistic and over plan. Sometimes, a planner can make us more stressed out rather than less. I want to show you how to keep a simple plan that will help you be more productive and do the right things without getting overwhelmed. We are going to create a clutter free planner with a post-it note or an index card. That's all, it takes a small little something that will keep you on target with the bare minimum list that stays in front of your face. So let's talk today about clutter free planner. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanInstead of focusing on the hurting or the tiredness, focus on the growing.It is good to want to grow up, and along the way the growing will cause pains, aches, and tiredness. If we look at the growth, we will be encouraged and be able to bear the aches. If we focus exclusively on how we feel, we will be discouraged, sad, and upset.When your heart and mind fight to be cranky, and you struggle to win the fight and stay cheerful, and you win it, you have a real success to be cheerful about, even if you feel worn out by it. Remember, prayer is the most effective weapon in the fight against a bad attitude. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanDo you think your story is all about you? That might be your biggest problem in living out a good story. Get hope and help telling a truer, better story: https://www.simplyconvivial.com/story for a free module from my course Organize Your Attitude all about Living in Story. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

Your life is truly a fairy tale.

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanWe're all constantly narrating a story about what's going on around us. Inside our head, the ticker tape comments never stop. Is the story you're seeing and telling yourself accurate? Have you ever stopped to think about the perspective your own narrator has? Reality doesn't change based on what you think or say, but what you think or say can give you a skewed vision of reality. We should make sure the interpretations we tell ourself, the stories we spin inside our own head, line up with reality before we believe them or persist in them.Telling yourself a true story is the basic step in organizing your attitude.Need more help with this? You'll find it at www.simplyconvivial.com 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanSo, we know that our home is for hospitality, but it seems so hard – it’s extra, and we have no room for extra. We want to know how to be hospitable, but it doesn’t come naturally.The one thing that makes hospitality so difficult is that we are out of practice.It is easy to slip into selfish patterns: doing what needs to be done on our own agendas, taking a break, keeping to ourselves and our own thoughts. Instead, we need to practice the habit of hospitality.The being hospitable includes but is much broader than having people over for dinner. It means inviting people into our lives – even the people that live in our houses.It is not enough to simply share a roof with people. We need to share a life – a full life, a conversational life – with them.And that sort of life will overflow into the lives of others through invitations and conversations, but mostly through our demeanor. The way we treat people is either selfish or welcoming, inviting, and interested. When we practice that mindset and manner with our family, it will become how we treat others as well. The habit of hospitality will shape all our interactions.The ways we are hospitable to others are the same ways we are hospitable to our family. And if we are not first hospitable to our family, we cannot be truly hospitable to anyone else. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanBut when we get our picture of what hospitality should look like from the magazine rack or HGTV, we stress out and shut down.The kind of hospitality God wants us to offer, however, is not according to worldly standards. The world’s goal for hospitality is to impress. God’s goal for hospitality is to knit. Through opening our doors and our lives to one another, we grow as a community. When we gather as a church body and share a meal and our lives, our love and fellowship deepens. When we gather in those outside, we show them what it’s like inside – inside the bounds of God’s family, God’s body, God’s community.Hospitality is not about showing off or impressing others. So we do not have to postpone it until the kitchen reno is complete, until the yard is gorgeous, or until we feel ready. We simply invite others into life, as is.That said, there are 3 ways I simplify the process and make it less stressful, less burdensome, to regularly have people over. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanhttps://www.simplyconvivial.com/Pursue hospitality. It’s a command. It’s a duty. But it doesn’t mean that we all need to be having people over for dinner every week.Well, except for our people – we feed them every day, every week – three times a day, even. That’s hospitality, too.The goal of hospitality means that we see our homes as tools in the formation of people, not as trophies to be kept beautiful.As G.K. Chesterton reminds us: The business done in the home is nothing less than the shaping of the body and soul of humanity.As homemakers, we’re making hospitable homes, homes that shape the bodies and souls of humanity.Those souls’ bodies might have been shaped in our wombs or not. Those bodies might sleep between sheets we wash or not. But our goal is that all the bodies and souls under our roof for years or for hours be shaped for good by the time spent in our homes.That’s our business.Our home is for the service of building up people. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanNeed to overcome chaos? Check out this article with a free housecleaning guide: https://www.simplyconvivial.com/clean/No matter how much we clean and organize, it never stays that way. What gives? What are we doing wrong? The only thing we’re doing wrong is thinking it would be otherwise.Entropy is real. Disorder happens. That’s exactly why we have a job, a responsibility, as homemakers, to keep things running. It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a home with many small children will be messy. And, if you ever find a magazine, tv show, or blog that does not acknowledge that reality, run. Run away. They don’t actually have help for you, only marketing facades and wishful thinking. If we’re going to be effective homemakers, we need to be walking in light of truth and reality. Did you assume you’d be a more organized mother and homemaker than you are? Did you think it’d be easier than it turned out to be? I’m right there with you. I hear from women all the time who say that before kids they *were* so organized and they don’t know why they can’t figure it out now with life with kids.I’ll tell ya: The problem isn’t with the kids or your house. It’s with your mindset and your expectations. Family life is different from project-based work and homemaking is different from a job with a boss and a schedule. Children need attention and response in the moment. Children’s needs cannot be predicted and planned, only addressed as needed. That takes a different skill set. Homemaking requires us to be self-directed, self-managed, and self-motivated - a different skill set than being a good employee. At Simply Convivial continuing education we learn and practice the skill sets this family life at home requires, all while remembering that the people are the point and our work is a calling and service given to us by God. When we practice in this mindset we not only improve our skill, we also find contentment and satisfaction, even when things don’t go our way. Remember to pop on over to https://www.simplyconvivial.com/attitude to get your free attitude adjustment audit and reclaim and renew your mindset.And always remember to Repent. Rejoice. Repeat. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanDon't miss the ABCs of decluttering workshop: https://www.simplyconvivial.com/2021/the-abcs-of-doable-decluttering-with-free-workshop-replay/What is clutter? If you’re going to declutter, you have to be able to answer that question. It’s harder than it seems, and knowing the difference between clutter and not-clutter might just be the difference between success and failure in your decluttering project. Clutter is stuff that doesn’t belong where it happens to be.Clutter is not only things you don’t want or need.So to declutter means to remove the things that don’t belong. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanDeclutter Workshop with slide deck download: https://www.simplyconvivial.com/2021/the-abcs-of-doable-decluttering-with-free-workshop-replay/ (no email signup required)How long is it going to take you to declutter?Decluttering can be an overwhelming project. It might feel like there’s no end and no hope in sight. You might be right about that.Declutter in 10 minutes a day and change your perspective on the task of decluttering.Did you assume you’d be a more organized mother and homemaker than you are? Did you think it’d be easier than it turned out to be? I’m right there with you. I hear from women all the time who say that before kids they *were* so organized and they don’t know why they can’t figure it out now with life with kids.I’ll tell ya: The problem isn’t with the kids or your house. It’s with your mindset and your expectations. Family life is different from project-based work and homemaking is different from a job with a boss and a schedule. Children need attention and response in the moment. Children’s needs cannot be predicted and planned, only addressed as needed. That takes a different skill set. Homemaking requires us to be self-directed, self-managed, and self-motivated - a different skill set than being a good employee. At Simply Convivial continuing education we learn and practice the skill sets this family life at home requires, all while remembering that the people are the point and our work is a calling and service given to us by God. When we practice in this mindset we not only improve our skill, we also find contentment and satisfaction, even when things don’t go our way. Remember to pop on over to https://simplyconvivial.com/attitude to get your free attitude adjustment audit and reclaim and renew your mindset.And always remember to Repent. Rejoice. Repeat. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanPerfectionism is the most likely reason that we procrastinate doing a weekly review. Perfectionism trips us up and tricks us into thinking that we will do more and do better - later, not now. In this episode, we learn how to identify perfectionism and defeat it. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanWe have a lot of options for planners. From paper planners to online apps, there are myriads of resources available to choose from. Yet even with all of these resources, we often find ourselves overwhelmed by overplanning, overconfident in our abilities to accomplish what "needs" to get done. In this exerpt from a members-only mentoring session, Mystie delves into this problem and explores different answers. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanHowever, to use this tool to its fullest extent, a few guidelines must be followed. Among them: don't overplan. Seems simple, right? Yet all too often, we pile too much on our plates, thinking that it would be good to start another project, start another book club, etc etc. All these projects simply degrade the usefulness of your calendar. Rather than being a list and schedule of the things you will do, it becomes a wish list of things you want to do. So reevaluate your calendar, cut off the flabby, unnecessary projects that are stressing you out, and, of course, repent, rejoice, repeat. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanIf you don't have a weekly review in place, all your time setting up a new planner and calendar for the year is wasted. Plans only work if you look at them and keep them current and correct.A weekly review does exactly that. It's a time to make your planner and your planning systems work for you. Be sure that the time you spend getting organized actually helps you stay organized by sticking with it regularly through a weekly review.Look at your lists to make them work! 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanNot only is ready the fifth step of preparing for 2021, it is also an acronym that the members of Simplified Organization Community Coaching will be doing as a deep dive.In this video, Mystie briefly discusses the first, familiar element of the acronym as well as the final, surprising component. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanIt seems patently obvious: of course you have to buy a new planner. I mean, it's a new year, you at least need a new calendar, right? True, but think about what is connected with that calendar: the entire way you plan out you year, months, and days. What worked and, more importantly, what didn't in 2020? What do you need to fix for 2021?Next reset some of your routines. Now, this doesn't mean going all the way back to the drawing board. Just pick one of your routines that was not ideal and hard to hold to throughout the year and reset it, reevaluating your strategy.And of course, we all need to reset our attitude, no matter what. There's no doubt, 2020 has produced some bad memories, bad habits, and bad attitudes. As we all know, the attitude is the starting point of everything. So evaluate yourself, replace the bad attitude that you find with one grounded in Christ, whose birth we are celebrating this week. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanOne 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 reverence of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Without Him, we will not find true renewal, and we will remain the tired, exhausted, cranky creatures we naturally are.So take a moment and reflect. Review the year, and while doing so, look to Christ to become renewed, ready for another year with which to glorify Him. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean2020 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. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanWhat 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 look for the good, the things we got right, the things we need to fix. It's time to review, because 2020 will end and we need to be ready for 2021.So get ready for 2021 and repent, rejoice, repeat. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanWhat 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 be the happy one in the household. See for yourself that when you shine festivity, you will see it come to life and reflect back to you. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanWhile 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 real purpose of the season, to remember and praise our Lord for the great gifts He has given us. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanHow 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 distracted from your calling: being a good mother. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanKids 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 more than lightening it. Rather, you should foster an environment that facilitates good, imaginative play. As the adult, you need to fulfill your adulting duties faithfully to allow your children to be children. Is this easier than playing with your kids? Perhaps, perhaps not. Just remember, easy isn't the measure of good. Raising kids isn't easy, but it's what we are called to do. Of course, we may fall down along the way, but get back up and repent, rejoice, repeat. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanIf 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 applicable to our lives as mothers at home.Consistency is about achieving sameness, but the reality is that life is never the same, so we aren't going to succeed at consistency. It is not the magic that we assume it will be.Perseverance might not be glam or magic, but it does apply and it does work. We need perseverance because we have an end goal we're running toward, and no matter what, we need to keep running on until we reach that prize - glory, God's, not ours. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanWe 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 bed. Astonishing, I know. Yet it seems to be common advice rarely taken - like so much good advice offered.It's not wrong or bad or weak to need rest. It's silly to forego it for mere distraction. Let's get into the habit of putting ourselves to bed at a reasonable hour. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanWe 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 has called us to because we have our trust and hope in him and not in our own accomplishments. 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. If you relate, if you want to overcome your exhaustion with perseverance - know that it is easier to do that in company than alone. You are not alone in your desire to do well at home. At Simply Convivial Continuing Education we have direction, accountability, and community support for digging in deep to our own unique roles and responsibilities. We don't have pat answers or get organized quick schemes. We do have gospel-centered and principle-based help for you to take the next steps in building perseverance, consistency, and also joy in your life at home. Head on over to simplyconvivial.com and click the green enroll button to learn more and get the help and support you need.And, also, always - Repent. Rejoice. Repeat. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanSimply 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 thinking towards living fruitfully. Subscribe and stay tuned as we explore this topic and implement it in our lives.If you feel like the work you do each day is meaningless or worthless or unfulfilling, that is a problem that needs to be addressed. If it's true, why do it? If it's not true, how can you change your mindset, your feelings, your perspective on the work God's given you? We can help. Inside Simply Convivial Continuing Education, we have courses, podcasts, live workshops, and a not-on-facebook community to help you figure out not only what needs to be done and why, but also how to do it with joy. Enroll in Simply Convivial Continuing Education today to get the support and insight you need to find joy and satisfaction in your life at home.https://www.simplyconvivial.com/membership 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanMaybe 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) they even complain.What’s a homeschool mom to do?Maybe you spot it in the sloppy work, or the sighs and slouching. Often the children are not reluctant to voice their opposition: They don’t like the book. They hate fractions. They don’t want to write an a that way.And then you come upon those “inspiring” quotes at the end of a bad day:The question is not, – how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education – but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? – Charlotte MasonAnd you know you’re in trouble, because your child is certain he doesn’t care, not one bit.In fact, maybe just that morning he muttered or even exclaimed, “I hate nature walks!” True story. It happens.Have I failed? Is it time to give up?No, not yet.I haven’t failed. I just know what my task is now.As both the mother and the teacher, it is our job to make our kids care.Our job isn’t to help them pass tests or memorize facts or check boxes.Our job is to make them care.C.S. Lewis, Augustine, and Aristotle tell us it is so:St. Augustine defines virtue as ordo amoris, the ordinate condition of the affections in which every object is accorded that kind and degree of love which is appropriate to it. Aristotle says that the aim of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought.It’s our aim. It’s our job, not a byproduct we hope for, but what we’re trying to do.And it’s oh so much harder than checking boxes, isn’t it? 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

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.

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanLearn more at https://www.simplyconvivial.com/membership 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanGet help living this out in the day to day: https://www.simplyconvivial.com/membership 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanAll 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. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanPerhaps 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 looking to yourself to find answers and meaning, look to Christ and pray to find your true purpose; that is the only way to truly succeed as a mother, or even as a human being. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean1. 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 plenty of ideas and examples. I also have a short interview with Jennifer Fulwiler of Conversion Diary about how and why to make time for creativity.2. Keep a regular prayer time.“Prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us,” teaches the Heidelberg Catechism. We need to stay in step with God through prayer, as He requires: “Pray without ceasing.” We make this optional and skip it to our own detriment. God’s peace surrounds us when we pray with thanksgiving, the Bible teaches. If we don’t have peace and we don’t pray about it, we shouldn’t be surprised by it.3. Lock the bathroom door.Three minutes of solitude really isn’t too much to ask. Little fingers might still peak underneath the door and wails might still be audible, but a few minutes “cloistered” away is not unreasonable. In fact, it’s a good way to teach the children that moms are people, too, who require at least some dignity and respect.4. Dress respectfully.Speaking of dignity and respect, I find it helps when I dress it. I have nothing against cute yoga pants, but there’s a world of difference between cute yoga pants and ratty old sweats. When I regularly dress sloppily, it doesn’t take long before I feel as crummy inside as I look outside. Taking a few minutes in the morning to do my hair, apply mascara, and put on clothes I wouldn’t be embarrassed to go out in not only lifts my own mood, but also teaches through my actions and appearance that home and motherhood are worth respecting and honoring.My current summer favorite is a knee-length skirt with a yoga-pant waistband I found at Costco. It looks dressy and nice, but is cool and comfortable. With a blouse it’s fancy, and with a tee or tank it’s casual and breezy.5. Get up & have a morning routine before the kids are up.I know, I know. It’s really hard. I don’t deny it. But, I don’t think you can deny that starting off the day with a little quiet and space makes for a better start and a smoother day than one where we hit the ground running.I’ve learned that if I don’t get up before the kids, exercise and prayer time simply won’t happen, so I have to prioritize getting up in the morning if I want to prioritize my own health and sanity.What small steps do you take that help you stay calm and maybe even cheerful through the day to day? 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanAre 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 cheerful goodwill.Starting July 3, we'll begin our 4th Simplified Organization Community Coaching group. These groups work through all three of the Simplified Organization courses over the course of six months, figuring out their vocations and what to do about that, creating planning habits that work with real family life, and taking responsibility for their homes. With extra support, accountability, checklists, and video meet-ups, we walk together through all the pieces that make up our home duties. The kickoff workshop is July 3 and we'd love to have you join us. It's included in membership, but you have to join the small group before we get started on July 3 or wait until January for the next group. Go to SimplyConvivial.com and click Enroll to learn more. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanEspecially 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's look at why we feel like failures and why we feel discouraged, and why that's all part of the package of actually being faithful in our roles as mothers at home. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanThere 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 external from us. It is not something we can control, manipulate, or change.When we’re talking about time management, what we’re actually needing to manage is ourselves. To maximize our time we must practice self-control and self-management. We must make better choices and decisions.We all feel like there's too much to do, but with the right perspective and realistic expectations, we can use our situation for growth instead of discouragement because we know neither ourselves nor our situation is stagnant or permanent. Get help figuring this out in your own life with Simply Convivial Continuing Education: https://www.simplyconvivial.com/membership 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanHow 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. I can do chicken a lot of ways, but every Monday morning, I know I need to go grab some chicken out of the basement freezer. Wednesdays are crockpot days at our house. Assign a certain type of meal to some of the days of the week.Fill in variations those assigned dinner types for the next six weeks. If you spread out your different options for chicken or crockpot dinners, you’ll not feel like you’re cooking and eating the same thing every week.Start filling in other dinner options. Think about how much time or energy is usually left by the end of the day on certain days of the week. What days are you more likely to feel like cooking and what days are good for pulling out the frozen meatballs? I usually alternate weeks on some meals – Tuesday one week might be a tortilla meal and then rice the next. Planning in six weeks chunks helps make rotations like that simpler to plan.Make sure you plan the vegetable and side if you need one as well as the main dish. See my post on Menu Planning: Think in Threes for more about planning a complete meal.Each and every dinner will not happen as planned for the next six weeks, but the plan is in place so that I don’t have to think about it anymore. If I need a dinner plan, there’s one on my calendar. If I feel like getting creative, I can just move the dinner to another day or simply delete that day’s plan. But having the plan in place means I don’t have to panic at 4pm that I had forgotten to think about dinner.And that’s why I did it.Plan ALL the meals!Mystie Winckler explains how she stays on top of cooking dinner every day without becoming overwhelmed. The secret? Take half an hour of your day to plan out ahead of time what this month's meals will be. After that, just create your master pantry list so that you don't get sidetracked shopping and you will have all the materials to cook delicious dinners every day. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanDinner 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 planning strategy is really a lot of what it all comes down to is the goal of making dinner easier. And one of the reasons why we feel that need or desire to make dinner easier is that it feels like it's harder than it needs to be. And I think that part of what's underneath that feeling of it being harder than we expect it or want it to be is that we think of dinner and just cooking the food and putting it on the table when there are really all these other pieces that have to happen before that can happen and we aren't taking into account the whole process and when we do take that it into account then it seems overwhelming. There are so many pieces and so many parts and they all relate and affect all the others and where do I even start and how do I even make all of this work together? And that's why you get services that will just give you the recipes and the shopping list and plot It out by day and say this is what you're going to do (or even that show up on your doorstep with the groceries and the recipes and the meal plan) because it feels like magic or some crazy skill that we just can't figure out to get all of those pieces and parts to work together, but we don't need those kind of solutions when we simplify. And if you choose a kind of subscription service you're simplifying because you're removing your decision-making from the process and that's simplifying and that's helpful because it's really decision-fatigue that wears us down if we have to decide what we're going to make for dinner, then look through the pantry and see what we have, and so decide what we have to buy, decide when to go to the grocery store, have that list, and get the right things, then decide to do what's on the plan—that’s a part of the decision-fatigue decision and it all becomes messy and involved and requiring a lot of initiative and mental energy from us and a lot of times we feel like that's not where my best energy and best work needs to be right now. Like, I've got these other things spinning, does dinner really have to take this much? And the answer is that it does not. At least not long-term, maybe a little bit in order to set it up and get some habits and systems in place to simplify it so that moving forward and practicing it it doesn't have to take all that out of us.Are you overwhelmed by the daunting task of cooking dinner for your family every single day? Learn how to plan & cook dinners without all the fuss by just taking stock of your pantry and making a list of favorite dishes.Cook Dinner With Less Stress 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanIt's easy to slip into feeling like dinner is a drag, like it's an interruption, like it's something we just really rather not do. But since we do need to serve dinner everyday, why not learn how to enjoy cooking more? It truly is possible!Of course, there are times where it just doesn't happen or it doesn't work out or we don't have the time, and so we have plan B meals. We have takeout—there’s pizza (whatever) sometimes that happens. But as a general rule if we are walking into the kitchen and feeling downcast and downtrodden because we have to fix another meal it’s really not the kitchen work that has to change or a new plan we have to make unless that plan is about our attitude. Today I have three tips to help us learn how to enjoy cooking more:Plan and reserve enough time to make dinner without rushing.Intentionally cultivate and practice cooking skills.Understand that cooking is relational and meaningful.We need a plan to fix our attitude, not a plan for fixing dinner. We've got to fix dinner. We have to fix our attitude first and even while we fix dinner. And when we can repent of our bad attitudes about our responsibility to feed our people we will find not just that we dread making dinner less, or we are resent the obligation on our day, or the mess in our kitchen that dinner makes, instead of looking at all those things as impositions on us, we can take it in stride as a part of our responsibility and duty and not just do it out of drudgery, but actually enjoy it. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanI had a dream. And in this dream my pantry always had everything I needed. I never ran out of ingredients to make dinner. I would go to the pantry, pull out what I needed to make dinner that day and it’d be there—no surprises. I had achieved well-stocked pantry perfection.But it turns out that making this dream a reality was much harder than I thought it would be. Still, it’s worth the effort to keep a well-stocked pantry. So, let’s talk about how to do just that.So, you go to make spaghetti and there’s no tomato sauce. You go to make soup and there’s no chicken broth. You think you’ll make tuna noodle casserole and then there’s no tuna or no noodles, or neither. This is frustrating. And it illustrates one of the troubles of menu planning.Menu planning isn’t just coming up with ideas of what’s for dinner. It’s managing this whole magic of having the idea of what’s for dinner, having the ingredients for that dinner on hand, starting dinner at the right time, on the right day, and of course, keeping it all frugal and within budget. There’s a lot that goes into keeping a menu plan. It takes practice. And with practice comes skill. But we need to practice—not just making a list and following that list, the menu planning proper—we also have to manage that pantry ingredient, grocery shopping side of things that makes the meal planning possible.It’s really this whole separate piece that if we aren’t aware of it, managing it, keeping track of it, then that menu plan that we’ve worked on doesn’t work. And we’re thrown back to plan B, or takeout, or frozen fish sticks (if those are in the freezer). So, what does it take to keep a well-stocked pantry? What is in a well-stocked pantry? What should be in your pantry? What should be in my pantry? How do we know that? And then, how do we keep our pantry well-stocked while feeding people three times a day?There are four important steps to keeping and using a well-stocked pantry.Know what your family actually eats and keep a master list of those items you actually use.Determine how much your family consumes of each pantry staple in a week or month.Check your pantry stock before grocery shopping – every time.Keep what’s in your pantry rotated so you use the oldest items first.The Pantry Stock ProblemI know when I was newly married and stocking our pantry for the first time I felt at a loss. There’s so much food at the grocery store. There are so many options. How do I even know what to buy?Sometimes we solve that conundrum by making a menu plan first and then buying the food that we need for those meals that we’ve planned for and that works. But it actually takes a lot longer to make that menu plan, to grocery shop for that menu plan, to follow the recipes, and to just make it all work.We can cut down on the time and energy that it takes to make our meals if we become pantry cooks. If we keep a regular stock on hand and then base our meals off of those things that we just always keep on hand. It’s actually in limiting our choices that things take less effort, energy, attention, time. Not only that, but when we function within limits, our creativity is called into play. It’s needed. And so choosing dinners based out of a pantry system is not only more efficient, it’s also more creative. But the question still comes down to what is in the pantry? And it’s certainly something that takes experience to build up, experimentation to figure out, and iteration and flexibility in continuing it. One of the things that I tried to do the first time I was stocking a pantry was look up that Martha Stewart list of what belongs in your pantry. I didn’t know what should be in our pantry but I figured someone else knows what I should buy, and so I took Martha Stewart’s list and stocked our pantry with the things she said that we should have.And you know what? A lot of that I didn’t really use. I had to be creative and use what I purchased, but I quickly realized that a lot of what Martha Stewart considered pantry basics I did not and I was not going to use and I was not going to restock. We all need to go through that process of figuring out what belongs in our own well-stocked pantry. There is no single definition, single master pantry list that we can all use as a standard, and as long as we follow this list then we have a well-stocked pantry. No, a well-stocked pantry simply means that our pantry has on hand multiples of the items that we consistently use in our cooking.There’s going to be a lot of overlap from what’s in your pantry and what’s in my pantry, but the identical lists, the master lists made by some expert, or my list used by you, or your listed used by me, is not going to work.We each need to go through that process of figuring out what we actually use regularly and keeping those things on hand A well-stocked pantry is not a full pantry. A well-stocked pantry is a pantry that has plenty of what you actually use. If your pant