Homemakers need professional development, too.

Most of us began our lives as wives and mothers not only without any training or instruction in running a home, but also without any real examples in our own history and life to follow. We want to identify as a homemaker, but still feel uncomfortable doing so.

We so desperately want to do a good job, and we jump in with both feet and suddenly find we’re drowning.

Modern society conditioned us to think that the job of a homemaker and mom was mundane, simple, outsource-able, unfulfilling work. “So,” we unwittingly think, “I should totally be able to manage this and do a good job.”

Then, to our surprise, we find that it’s a lot of work and that we’re wholly unprepared for all it demands of us.

We’ve had no training in how to be homemakers

Our society is set up to believe that education is meant to prepare you for your work. We go into debt, spend 4 or more years of life, and plan to come out of that ready for a fulfilling career.

On the one hand, then, we buy the argument that homemaking is fulfilling and meaningful work, yet on the other hand, we don’t think it takes any real training or education to do it. In what other meaningful work is that the case?

Past societies didn’t have the university system. Instead, they relied on apprenticeships and relational training. Children learned how to survive and work from their parents. Tradesmen learned their craft from an experienced master. Knowledge and skill were past on through relationship over time.

But mom is home alone with her small children, no one there helping her see what the next thing she ought to do really is. Who will help sort out the details and make it all fit into a manageable whole? We can blame our mothers, but even our mothers, at this point, didn’t have mothers who taught them either.

My own homemaking development

I grew up in a home with a homeschooling, stay-at-home mom; I am the oldest of seven children. So, I did at least know how to change diapers, how to help with middle-of-the-night feedings (my mom had twins when I was 12), and how to cook a few meals for a crowd. I had helped with chores. I knew what family life was like. So I expected to be able to walk into my own role as mom, prepared and ready to nail it. After all, I’d made my list when I was 12 of all the ways I’d do it better than my own mom.

So I was bound to fall face first. Pride does that – and it’s good for us that God orchestrates it thus.

The reality is that homemaking and parenting is made up of innumerable areas of responsibility. There are so many plates we’re supposed to keep spinning, we can’t even track them all down – especially when several have rolled down the hall and around the corner. Yet for the most part we jump in with a very short runway for a learning curve.

Over the years as I’ve failed and faltered and struggled and continually, by God’s grace and at His insistence, gotten back up again to keep at it, I’ve engaged in my own skill and management training by writing it out, over and over again. As I have walked this development and sanctification path myself, I’ve been encouraged to connect with other women struggling through the same issues.

Continuing Education for Homemakers

After years of running single courses to help other homemakers address their attitudes and manage their responsibilities better, it became a juggle just to keep track of the programs I was offering.

That’s why we now have a single subscription to all the courses, which have been consolidated and clarified in the process.

In every course we offer, the underlying assumption is that our attitude – our heart – matters more than whether or not the floor is clean or the laundry is done. We learn to manage our expectations and standards and align our thinking with biblical wisdom. It’s not the kind of thing a checklist can cover adequately.

What we need is not a new set of hacks and tips and tricks, but rather a perspective shift with relational accountability and guidance that will allow us to apply wisdom and grace in our own personal situation.

Instead of looking to others to give us a checklist and tell us what to do, we need to grow in understanding, gratitude, perseverance, and ability. That all adds up to applied wisdom.

Wisdom is not a switch we can flip. It’s a journey to undertake, one step at a time.

Convivial Circle is set up to be a flexible, adaptable support system for your own growth in ability, maturity, and sanctification as you live out your calling as a wife and mother.

What you’ll learn inside Convivial Circle

The courses inside Simply Convivial Continuing Education are not going to give you secret knowledge along with a magic pill so that you can suddenly stay on top of your life and do all the things. Instead, they will walk you through addressing what’s actually causing your struggles and helping you address those through repentance and rejoicing (which comes with obedience) – not as a once-and-done step, but as a continual process.

While addressing every element of our homemaking responsibilities and also our personal (including emotional and mental) habits, each course also helps you make meaningful, visible progress in your home as well.

The courses are not superficial or quick-fix, but they also are not spiritualized and esoteric. Our lives are blended physicality and spirituality, and so any approach that will help us grow must also be both.

The following programs are available to all enrolled members of Convivial Circle:

How you’ll learn inside Convivial Circle

Every course has lessons available in written or audio form so you can learn in the way that works best for you. Then each module also has an activity or two that will help you apply the concepts and principles to your own situation.

In addition to lessons, members get ongoing support and structure for working through the courses and applying it practically. Weekly emails give encouragement, direction, and updates.

We have a totally private, not-on-Facebook chat app that works on browsers, as a desktop program, or via app on mobile. Hundreds of women are there, discussing and sharing their own applications, insights, struggles, and successes.

Members can also opt in to receive a morning motivating text with a quote or encouragement. We also have weekly and monthly live events to help us stay connected and engaged, living these ideas out in the midst of our real lives.

Replays of live events and all module lessons are available on a member-exclusive podcast, as well, so you can keep up on the go and get a dose of motivation and accountability when you need it.

How do these programs teach me to be a better homemaker?

When you enroll in Convivial Circle, you will:

• Be able to adapt any planner or even a plain sheet of paper to manage the details of life. No specialty products are required to do life well.
• Find true balance in your expectations and commitments, balance that is always active and grounded in justice and truth rather than feelings.
• Be able to eliminate guilt, irritability, and distraction as you move forward with purpose and peace.
• Experience satisfaction at the end of the day not because everything is done and went your way, but because you know you spent your time wisely.
• Build the habits you need to experience consistency in your housework, homeschooling, and personal life.
• Become flexible without frustration because you know your priorities and how to choose them when plans go awry.

The truth is that being organized does not mean being in control of the situation.

Being organized means we’re in control of ourselves.

Our attempts at organization fail because they focus on controlling our space, our situation, our spouses, our children…

Instead, we need to organize our own attitudes and our own choices.

To do that effectively, we need to shift our attention from the stuff and situation and learn how to change our attitude & approach.

Convivial Circle is where you’ll find both instruction & mentoring so you can be a homemaker who glorifies God.