Lunch is the mid-day reset. No plan survives contact with the enemy. -Helmuth van Moltke The perfect plan- set out in the morning, in the early hours before the house wakes up and the day rolls away from the station- never unfolds quite as I’d hoped. The lessons aren’t finished as early as I’d have liked, the house is a bigger mess. The phone calls I intended to make still linger in my mind and the laundry sits, complaining quietly … Read More
I’ve written for years now about interval planning, and it’s a concept I continue to practice and teach. At its heart, interval planning chooses goals and plans projects and works within manageable increments (6-12 weeks, usually) instead of short bursts (a week or month) or long stretches (quarters or years). Then, between intervals, time (a day or a week) is taken to step back, wrap up loose ends, and plan for the next stretch. The interval is for doing mode … Read More
Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio blog, where we practice managing our lives with fruitful, faithful resilience, overcoming distraction and discouragement, so we can glorify God in our work and our attitudes. Motherhood shifts our perspective on life. Today’s episode is a baby shower devotional I gave at my sister-in-law’s baby shower three years ago. In it I share good news, bad news, and good news about how we change when we become mothers. Let’s dig in. Original post: Mothers … Read More
How many times have you wished for more consistency? You and me, both. It’s not unusual or uncommon. You’re not the only one. And even as you do grow in consistency and improve, you will also feel your lack more as well. It’s part of the process. We don’t actually reach an end-point goal where now we are 100% consistent and good to go. It’s part of life that ebbs and flows, that grows and then contracts during illness or … Read More
Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio blog, where we practice managing our lives with fruitful, faithful resilience, overcoming distraction and discouragement, so we can glorify God in our work and our attitudes. Sometimes the days are long and loud and trying, particularly when everyone is small and needy. Today’s post is one a wrote a number of years ago when no one was double-digits yet. It’s an intense time, and yet it’s also a fleeting time, it turns out. Still, … Read More
Well, long time no blog post. I’ll spare the excuses (some of them you can infer from the rest of this post) and tell you what I’m always telling myself, “Now I’ll be back on track and not miss a planned publish date.” Ha! Brandy gives a top 5 every week. Anne Bogel shares 7 things she’s learned every month. I, however, only have 5 to share on a monthly basis. In no particular order, here are 5 things I … Read More
Recorded March 1, 2019. Share how you’ve seen this play out in your own life:
Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio blog, where we practice managing our lives with fruitful, faithful resilience, overcoming distraction and discouragement, so we can glorify God in our work and our attitudes. The word hospitality, as it comes to us in English through Old French and Latin *hospes*, means being a host – a loaded concept in ancient times. Hosts have certain duties, and in learning about hospitality we learn about what we ought to do and be as homemakers. … Read More
Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio Blog, where we grow in faithfulness, cheerfulness, and resilience, staying engaged in our life at home because it’s where God has placed us to serve. I’m Mystie Winckler, a second-generation homeschooler now classically home educating my brood of 5, ages 15 to 6. We’re continuing to explore foundational educational philosophy with this episode, because what we believe about humans and about education matters tremendously to our work as mothers, especially if we homeschool. In … Read More
Welcome to the Simply Convivial Audio Blog, where we grow in faithfulness, cheerfulness, and resilience, staying engaged in our life at home because it’s where God has placed us to serve. I’m Mystie Winckler, a second-generation homeschooler now classically home educating my brood of 5, ages 15 to 6. Today’s episode is a bite-sized piece of educational philosophy for you from Charlotte Mason on the nature of children. They are persons. As James KA Smith says, “Every pedagogy assumes … Read More