Simply Convivial

About

About Simply Convivial

At Simply Convivial, Mystie Winckler focuses on all that is entailed in creating a home that centers on fellowship and hospitality — extending it first to its residents, and then to any others God sends.

Home is infused with metaphoric and symbolic significance. The struggle lies in being motivated to make our homes a foretaste of the heavenly home, an outpost of the kingdom, while remaining content in the muddle that is everyday life. This is a blog about marrying the vision to the mundane, about working toward the mission with clarity and purpose while staying honest and humble and humorous about what that really looks like in a real house full of real individuals and real life.

I didn’t start Simply Convivial because I am a sweet, gentle, nice Mom, but because I am not. This is my journey in repentance, in learning gratitude and contentment and happiness in a life spent loving first the children God has blessed us with, then the body of Christ, and then those outside. I am learning to be a good steward in the small things, hoping to be given greater and greater responsibility and finally to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.”

Making a Convivial Home

• Convivial Home: What Has Happened to All Your Joy?
• Convivial Home: Enjoying Life, Children, and God
• Convivial Home: Paradigm Shift
• Convivial Home: The Dare
• Convivial Home: Unrelenting Fellowship

About Mystie Winckler

I began Simply Convivial in early 2012 as a way to reflect on my desire to build more happiness, festivity, and fellowship into my home and family.

With nine-year-old and seven-year-old boys wrestling and digging and reading, a five-year-old-girl tagging alongside, a hefty three-year-old son barreling down the hall, and a baby girl on her hip, I strive (sometimes half-heartedly) to maintain an orderly and harmonious home. Our homeschooling days have begun in earnest, but it is the daily interaction, the relationships fostered, that are equally as integral to the children’s identity and development as their scholastic studies are. Academics provide a forge for character, just as life provides fodder for learning.

I was raised to be a reader in a home full of books. At my father’s knee I learned the first step to any hobby or undertaking is to check out 5 books on the topic from the library — and read them. Now I attempt to pass on that book dependence to the next generation, while maintaining it in my own life. Having read dozens of books on childrearing and education, and participating in online discussions on the topics, I am settling into my own hybrid of classical education, Charlotte Mason, and — much to my chagrin — Christian unschooling.

The oldest of seven children, I myself was homeschooled from birth through high school. I graduated with a B.A. in English from the University of Idaho in Moscow, ID at the age of 20. My husband, Matt, and I were married at 19, with no looking back and no regrets.

I can also be found at Simplified Pantry, where I blog about my homestyle fare. I also contribute to the blogs Fulfilling Your Vows. My husband Matt is a software programmer and web developer, available for freelance projects.

You may contact Mystie by email: spell my first name correctly, then add (at) simplyconvivial.com.