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Need 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.

Don'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.

Declutter 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.

Perfectionism 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.

We 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.

However, 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.

If 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!

Not 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.

It 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.

One 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.

2020 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.

What 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.

What 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.

While 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.

How 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.

Kids 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.

If 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.

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. 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.

We 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.

Simply 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