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

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanMoms, with affection, might tease their children about not growing anymore, about skipping a birthday, or otherwise staying right where they are.Is that because we want to stay right where we are? We’re comfortable in this role of mom-to-young-ones; we love the affection and the antics.Yet time stops for no mom.The children continue to grow, whether you wanted it or allowed it or not.The question becomes: are you growing, too? 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanAs I’m sure you’ve already felt, beginning your family starts a seismic shift in your life.For the past number of years, you’ve faced milestone decision after milestone decision.Now you have the degree, you’re married, you own a house, and you’re holding your first child.It’s time for the calm, right? The coming of normality. Now starts the “real” rest of your life, what you’ve been building up to. Wrong. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanDo you know that quote?It’s from My Fair Lady, when, after months of agony, Eliza & Professor Higgins are draped late at night in the library, Higgins still insisting, “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain!” Eliza moans, “I can’t! I can’t! I’m so tired. I’m so tired.” 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanPull out the glasses, set the table, time to get ready for company.Ever noticed that funny feeling where you turn on a different persona, a different ability to handle life, at least momentarily, when you open the door or answer the phone?It shows us our actual ability to exhibit self-control.Too often, our tone and tactics with our kids do not.When we jump on them, pester and harp, then switch it off immediately if someone walks in the door, we’ve got a clue – there’s a problem. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanChildren are not born either good or bad, but with possibilities for good and for evil; therefore, our duty is to encourage the good traits and discourage the bad. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

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

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanOur attitude is the most important factor in how we handle life, and it is a multi-faceted component.One of the components of an organized attitude – and one we don’t consider often – is imperviousness. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanGiven the definition of classical education we developed previously – that classical education is a set of principles that focuses on developing a love of truth, goodness, and beauty – I then give you this, from Charlotte Mason’s Philosophy of Education:"[Education should] qualify their children for life rather than for earning a living." One sentence, and that’s the real crux of it. What is the point of our studies? It is not to get into college or get a job. The point is that our studies make us fit and able to live a worthy and honorable life. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanEntropy is real. Entropy is part of the current natural order. The dictionary defines it as, “a gradual decline into disorder.”That’s real life.Gardens grow weeds.If we want to handle life well, we have to align our mindset and our actions with that reality. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanLife goes through different phases, stages, and seasons. Nothing we do will change that. Instead, what we do should work with that reality.Planning and organizing while knowing that life will change and shift and our efforts will not last forever (or maybe even that long) will look different. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanThe enthusiasm of our young children energizes us. When they delight in poems, birds, stories, and singing, we take a deep breath and are relieved. This education thing we’re trying is working.Then things get patchy. The 12-year-old puts on a stoic face, shuffles in the back of the group, leans away at the table. He argues about doing his assignments, or reading that book, or doing so much math. He pokes at his siblings or shirks his work. He argues, and argues, and argues. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanOwn your thoughts: Change the subject in your head.When fear or doubt creeps in, we don’t need to reason with it or explain it away or answer it. We can simply pray about the issue that’s vexing us and then “change the subject” we’re thinking about. We don’t have to engage fear or doubt and overcome them with willpower or logic. The response of faith is to pray, then turn it over into God’s hands and move on with whatever small obedience is in front of us.This requires trust and it is also the practice of trusting. Not only knowing our worrying doesn’t do any good, but also acting on that knowledge by doing whatever it is we’re supposed to be doing instead.Changing the subject, Nancy said, doesn’t have to be super-spiritual. You can choose to think instead about what you’ll plant in your garden, about a book you’re reading, about a funny story of the kids’ antics you’ll tell your husband or mother.Own your thoughts: Set your mind on things above, where Christ is.The call in Philippians to set ours minds on things above is active. It’s a conscious, purposeful sort of thing, a thing that might feel weird and awkward at first. We’re to pick up our thoughts, as it were, from the trash heap where they want to dig and dwell, and set them where they should be: on Christ, on His kingdom, on love.By faith, we have a good story. We’re living a good story because God’s writing it. We need to also tell ourselves The Good Story as we walk along our way – this is for God’s glory, not our own; this is about my salvation and sanctification, not about my pet goals.Remembering the bigger picture puts our grievances and worries in perspective and helps us choose obedience instead of fear or pride. Remember the ultimate outcome and that you are a partaker of it.Own your thoughts. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

We’re kicking off the year with a conversation Virginia Lee Rogers and I had about keeping our attitudes organized in the midst of real life.

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanSeason 12: Finding Rest as a Homeschool Mom This season of the Simplified Organization Audio Blog is excerpts from an hour-long live chat all about resting as a homeschool mom. Find the link below to access the replay in its entirety! Decision fatigue is super real, and it’s not just our kids pestering that puts us over the edge, it’s ourselves also. Our own minds are always going, going, going. And that’s one reason why we’re brain dumping, we’re getting … Read MoreThe post SO073: Living From a State of Rest appeared first on Simply Convivial.Support the show (https://www.simplyconvivial.com/membership) 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanThe result of an education in wisdom is a resilient integrity which knows what should be done and has the strength of mind and body to do it. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanThe classical tradition does not see itself as a new thing, but as part of the stream of Western civilization that started in Greece, grew in the middle ages, has suffered much recently, but still exists, particularly if we educate our children in its gifts and blessings and warnings. It is the culture of a people who sought truth, of a people then who met Truth, of a people who tried – though messily and often wrongly – to make truth the basis of their state and kingdoms, and always of a people who wanted truth more than anything else.Yet another definition of education, fully in line with so many others: Knowing Truth + conforming ourselves to Truth = wisdom. It has been said in a variety of ways by a variety of people, but that is the essence of a classical education. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanWe’ve all felt the exhaustion, the overwhelming sense of vague failure or defeat, the frustration of feeling like our goals are impossible. Maybe some women out there can manage, but we aren’t and cannot be.We need rest. We know we need rest. But we aren’t sure how.The only kind of rest we can even think of is a “turn it all off” sort of rest. Go away. Escape. Shut down. Stop the madness.And that’s pretty much impossible.So, rest must simply be unachievable for us. Let’s just give up with a novel on the couch or with chocolate and a tv show: a second-best sort of escape.Real rest, however, leaves us feeling ready to tackle our duties again. It leaves us refreshed and energized, just like a good sleep.True, a good sleep is one kind of rest, but it’s not the only kind. All rest, however, is not an escape from our duties, but another part of our duty before God. He never tells us to be go-go-go, and in fact commands us not to be. We are not to be self-reliant and self-sufficient, but abide in His rest.Taking time to be, away from our productive mode and our duties of service and stewardship, acknowledges that we can’t do it all and rests in the knowledge that we don’t have to, because Christ has supplied all we need: salvation, peace, and joy.God is in control; we are not. Rest is based on our trust of that truth, the truth of His providential care.https://www.simplyconvivial.com/2018/find-rest-mom/ 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanGeneral and wide knowledge is the foundation of the educated mind, the roots that nourish it and cause it to grow.In order to bear fruit, we must learn and know. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanWe’ve all felt the exhaustion, the overwhelming sense of vague failure or defeat, the frustration of feeling like our goals are impossible. Maybe some women out there can manage, but we aren’t and cannot be.We need rest. We know we need rest. But we aren’t sure how.The only kind of rest we can even think of is a “turn it all off” sort of rest. Go away. Escape. Shut down. Stop the madness.And that’s pretty much impossible.So, rest must simply be unachievable for us. Let’s just give up with a novel on the couch or with chocolate and a tv show: a second-best sort of escape.Real rest, however, leaves us feeling ready to tackle our duties again. It leaves us refreshed and energized, just like a good sleep.True, a good sleep is one kind of rest, but it’s not the only kind. All rest, however, is not an escape from our duties, but another part of our duty before God. He never tells us to be go-go-go, and in fact commands us not to be. We are not to be self-reliant and self-sufficient, but abide in His rest.Taking time to be, away from our productive mode and our duties of service and stewardship, acknowledges that we can’t do it all and rests in the knowledge that we don’t have to, because Christ has supplied all we need: salvation, peace, and joy.God is in control; we are not. Rest is based on our trust of that truth, the truth of His providential care.https://www.simplyconvivial.com/2018/find-rest-mom/ 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanQuintilian wants young children to be exposed to literary thought and literary quality, because they are naturally receptive and retentive at this age – so what they are exposed to will matter to their entire course of life. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanWe’ve all felt the exhaustion, the overwhelming sense of vague failure or defeat, the frustration of feeling like our goals are impossible. Maybe some women out there can manage, but we aren’t and cannot be.We need rest. We know we need rest. But we aren’t sure how.The only kind of rest we can even think of is a “turn it all off” sort of rest. Go away. Escape. Shut down. Stop the madness.And that’s pretty much impossible.So, rest must simply be unachievable for us. Let’s just give up with a novel on the couch or with chocolate and a tv show: a second-best sort of escape.Real rest, however, leaves us feeling ready to tackle our duties again. It leaves us refreshed and energized, just like a good sleep.True, a good sleep is one kind of rest, but it’s not the only kind. All rest, however, is not an escape from our duties, but another part of our duty before God. He never tells us to be go-go-go, and in fact commands us not to be. We are not to be self-reliant and self-sufficient, but abide in His rest.Taking time to be, away from our productive mode and our duties of service and stewardship, acknowledges that we can’t do it all and rests in the knowledge that we don’t have to, because Christ has supplied all we need: salvation, peace, and joy.God is in control; we are not. Rest is based on our trust of that truth, the truth of His providential care.https://www.simplyconvivial.com/2018/find-rest-mom/ 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanWe can’t simply demand character out of a person, nor can we explain it with abstract and theoretical definitions and expect that to be sufficient. We have to illustrate – model, tell stories, practice, make analogies – if we want to help people (ourselves, our children) change.And doing so is demanding. It’s hard work. It’s good work. It’s necessary work. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanWe’ve all felt the exhaustion, the overwhelming sense of vague failure or defeat, the frustration of feeling like our goals are impossible. Maybe some women out there can manage, but we aren’t and cannot be.We need rest. We know we need rest. But we aren’t sure how.The only kind of rest we can even think of is a “turn it all off” sort of rest. Go away. Escape. Shut down. Stop the madness.And that’s pretty much impossible.So, rest must simply be unachievable for us. Let’s just give up with a novel on the couch or with chocolate and a tv show: a second-best sort of escape.Real rest, however, leaves us feeling ready to tackle our duties again. It leaves us refreshed and energized, just like a good sleep.True, a good sleep is one kind of rest, but it’s not the only kind. All rest, however, is not an escape from our duties, but another part of our duty before God. He never tells us to be go-go-go, and in fact commands us not to be. We are not to be self-reliant and self-sufficient, but abide in His rest.Taking time to be, away from our productive mode and our duties of service and stewardship, acknowledges that we can’t do it all and rests in the knowledge that we don’t have to, because Christ has supplied all we need: salvation, peace, and joy.God is in control; we are not. Rest is based on our trust of that truth, the truth of His providential care.https://www.simplyconvivial.com/2018/find-rest-mom/ 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanIf there's one subject that can get a homeschool mom down, it's usually math. Listen in on this conversation between Mystie and Virginia Lee about getting math done, keeping it organized, and helping our kids progress at their own pace. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanSo this season is about rest. All the rest of the episodes are going to be clips from a workshop that I did on getting rest as a mom because sometimes that just seems impossible. So, I thought today we would kick off that season by having a quick conversation about specific ways that we rest and recuperate from an intense day with the kids. And, I think that thinking about it in terms of recuperation really helps. It’s not usually a word that’s used in this conversation. We talk about rest or renewal or refreshment or filling our buckets, but I don’t know, I like the word recuperation.Virginia Lee: I do, too, it seems more like not a lifetime goal, a long term goal, but we can recuperate and get back into action.Mystie: Right, the focus is on rebuilding, almost. You know, getting back to wholeness because sometimes it feels like we’ve been a little bit deconstructed after an intense day.Virginia Lee: Yes, most definitely.Mystie: So, I am an introvert and Virginia Lee is an extrovert, so we can bring a little bit of a difference there. And, Virginia Lee, what are some of the things that you do after a hard day?Virginia Lee: You know, I almost always do the same things because they work for me: I pour myself a glass of sweet tea, I go outside under Silver Girl, which is our maple tree in our front yard, and then depending on exactly the extreme amount that I have to recuperate from, I either pray, or I would do a brain dump, or I get on a voxer and have a conversation with a friend.Mystie: OK, nice.Virginia Lee: And that seems to work every time. I choose one of those three depending of the severity or the seriousness of the recuperation that I need.Mystie: Beverage, outside, and conversation. Because, prayer is conversation with God. And, of course, it makes me happy that brain dumping is also one of the options.Virginia Lee: Yes, sometimes my recuperation needs to be a brain dump because the part that’s really torn me down is the fact that there’s just too much in my head from what I’ve seen in my day that I either need to tweak or add to, and it really helps me to refresh to just not have it all in my head any more.Mystie: My current refreshing beverage of choice in the afternoon is sparkling water. So, I will grab sparkling water, close myself off in the bedroom or somewhere, sometimes I go take a quick walk or just even pace in front of my house (and make a spectacle for my neighbors), but actually, I think the walking itself helps – it is the outside but it’s also just some movement, it just helps the blood flow to the right places again. It helps my brain think more clearly, kind of like the brain dump. I will do a brain dump. One thing that I started doing last year was a power nap, which I’ve tried off and on before, and I read about power naps, but I’m not really a napper, and I usually feel worse after a try to take a nap, but I just felt like I needed the end of, especially like teaching a class or something, I just needed to turn off. I almost actually never fall asleep but it’s kind of my version of an isolation chamber. So, I take one of my black pajama shirts and drape it over my eyes, sometimes I will even put in ear plugs and close the door and everyone knows it’s just 10 minutes, no one’s allowed to knock on the door or anything, but I also have no nappers. No one naps at all in my house. Quiet Time is a thing of the past, so this is mom’s quiet time. It’s amazingly helpful to just have 10 minutes with zero input. It’s not really the sleep so much as the being able to turn off for a little bit. It’s like a reboot. And, then I have so much more mental clarity when I get up. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanSomehow, Berry makes you feel affection for all mankind, even those who aren’t likable and maybe even those who are wicked but especially for those who are foolish — which is each one of us.“Membership” with one another is the underlying thread in them both, and these novels have given that word much more depth and richness than I had ever seen in it. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanAs I’ve written before, the goal of education is virtue, and Karen’s first chapter jumps right into the heart of it. She proves that virtue – right acting – needs to be the end we are pursuing when we educate children (and also ourselves), and demonstrates this is the classical notion about what education is for. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanToo often, when we start making goals around keeping house better or getting more done, our focus shifts too far and we start seeing these means as ends – which means anything that gets in the way of our ends is a problem to be overcome or a frustration to bear resentfully.And too often, that means grumbling against our husbands or shouting at our kids. We could reach our goals, we think to ourselves, if it weren’t for these other people getting in the way. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanI recently finished Laurie Bestvater's The Living Page: Keeping Notebooks with Charlotte Mason, and I loved it. I bought it based on Brandy's reviews, and I'm glad I made the leap-of-faith, even though I am only a Charlotte Mason admirer and not a strict adherer. I think this book, with the history behind commonplace books and Mason's implementation of it, demonstrates more clearly than ever that Charlotte Mason was not an innovator, but was making methods and practices based soundly upon the classical tradition that had gone before. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanOne way we give in to perfectionism is to not start unless we know we can finish and get the results we want.But as busy moms, that is rarely possible.We can’t put things off until the perfect moment, because that moment will not come.Instead, try embracing 15 minute chunks. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanIt’s easy to smile at our newborns, smile at a cute three-year-old antic, smile at our bigger kids when they volunteer to help out. It’s good our life as mother provides us these opportunities to smile, because smiling is good for us and it is good for our kids. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean“Cross to carry” is a phrase used to talk about suffering as a lot in life, but this portrayal of that cross, that suffering, as an active things in our life struck me. I have always pictured “cross to carry” as a passive sort of thing. But difficulty as a purposeful, active thing in our life, rather than a weight holding us down, is a much more biblical picture. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanIt’s paralyzed us all.Perfectionism.We wait to start moving forward with our plans because we aren’t sure if we’re doing it right. We aren’t sure they will work. We aren’t sure we like the colors we picked.We pull back and reformat the page or change the app we’re using. We make the list over again to ensure we didn’t miss anything. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanIf you are starting out homeschooling with a bright-eyed little 5-year-old – a toddler tagging along and another on the way – you eat up the stories of those ahead of you on the journey.When I was in that spot 8 years ago, I had my mom who had homeschooled 7. I also had other local older moms who let me browse their bookshelves and ask them questions. And then on my computer screen, I had Cindy Rollins, whose ninth child at the time was in elementary school, only a couple years ahead of my oldest. She was about to graduate her oldest, and she was funny and smart and real. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanSeason 11: Attitude Organization Tips When we recite a handful of mottos over and over again, and conform our choices to them, we more and more naturally live them out even when we don’t use them. They become the way we simply do things. The best way to form new habits is to take on the identity as the kind of person who … leaves places better than they were, smiles and starts, or doesn’t let a mistake or slip-up … Read MoreThe post SO063: Give Yourself a Motto appeared first on Simply Convivial.Support the show (https://www.simplyconvivial.com/membership) 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

What should a homeschooling mom read? Mystie and Virginia Lee each recommend their top three book picks.

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleantips for organizing our attitude because it often needs it with stuff day to day. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanCertainly we are to watch and train the habits of our children and our household, but that is not all the work to be done. The confirmation of the habit into a character is work done by the person himself when he is independent. The test of character comes when each person is an adult – will he confirm the habits he was brought up to? Will he practice what he has been taught? 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

When we plan, we need to be planning to work within our vocations.

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanIt is by means of language that we both procure and use wisdom – for does not thought require language?So practice in speaking and in using language (today we would add writing as a method of discourse) is of upmost importance not just to learn to communicate effectively with others, but even to be able to understand within our own minds. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

The real secret of making your planners work is actually looking at it.

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanEducation in the broad, unspecialized sense is summed up as how to obey and how to rule.One who rules without obeying is a tyrant, one who obeys without ruling is a slave.And both truly all begins when young children learn to obey, because that requires the beginnings of learning self-control. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

Planning is not always going to be the same. We need to be flexible according to our needs at the time we're in.

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanMothers must be both teachers and learners.As mothers home with our children all day every day, we are their primary influence, especially in the younger years. We can’t just wing it and expect great results or satisfaction.If we can be always learning, always growing, always stretching, we will be happier and we will be modeling for our children the life we’re asking them to embrace. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

Learn what your planner really is supposed to be doing for you.

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanIf we start off on this homeschool journey with no idea what education is, why we’re doing it, or where we want to be at the end, we’ll flounder, frustrated and fickle. We’ll have no idea whether what we’re doing is working or if we’re doing a good job.We have to have a measuring stick to determine if we’re straightened out and moving forward. A measuring stick has a beginning and an end. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

Productive procrastination is doing anything except what you really ought to be doing.

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanThe one thread that strings through all the classical educators from Perrin to Plato is that education’s aim is virtue – not a diploma, not a job, not a stack of accomplishments. Our children – and even ourselves – should be better people, inherently, because of the education we received, no matter what circumstances or results come afterward. 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean

Sometimes planning really is wasting time, but if we learn good planning habits, we can use that time effectively.

3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/cleanMystie – There’s a spread of abilities and also needs. How do the expectations that we have as moms going into that situation affect how we do it, what we do, and our sanity as we do it. So, how would you say that your expectations have maybe changed or when you go into a school year.Celeste – Since I’ve always had little kids while I’m schooling, usually a toddler and a baby, pretty much every year since I started homeschooling,.. I have a certain curriculum, a certain amount of work that I’d like to get done with my big kids but I have to be flexible in terms of where and how we fit in those things, and I have to be willing to think outside of the box in terms of our school day…Mystie – When there’s so many interruptions and you have to get up and take care of the baby, there are just a lot of things all going on at once, and you’re trying to decide do I do [this] or [this]. How do you keep track of what you should be doing or what you need to get back to when the interruption calms down?Celeste – I think of my day really in terms of blocks. At the beginning of each year I set out a schedule for myself where I have time slots and that is not actually something that we’re going to live by, that’s me making sure I’m not over-scheduling myself, that technically these things could potentially fit in this order on a given day that might or might not actually occur… 3Rs of Meaningful Housework: simplyconvivial.com/clean