Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Christian homemakers need encouragement and motivation to stay the course. Homemaking and homeschooling can feel overwhelming, but they don’t have to be. If you’re a Christian mom longing for a well-ordered home, a peaceful homeschool, and a joyful heart—without the stress or burnout—you’re in the right place. Moms can be productive and peaceful when grounded in Scriptural truth.
I’m Mystie Winckler, homeschooling mom of five, founder of Simply Convivial, and your guide to managing both home and heart with faith and focus. Here, we talk about biblical homemaking, sustainable homeschooling, and cheerful productivity—all through the lens of organizing your attitude and embracing your God-given calling.
In each episode, you’ll find practical homemaking systems, homeschooling strategies, and mindset shifts that will help you manage your home without perfectionism or frustration. We’ll tackle topics like:
✔️ Christian homemaking routines that actually work
✔️ Productivity, mom-style
✔️ Homeschooling with peace—even when life gets messy
✔️ Time management for moms (without rigid schedules)
✔️ Decluttering your home & your attitude
✔️ How to be diligent, not just busy
Motherhood is a marathon, not a sprint. You don’t need more willpower—you need a grace-filled, biblical approach to managing life at home. Let’s cultivate faithfulness, embrace joy, and build habits that make home a place of peace and purpose.
👉 Subscribe now and start organizing your home and heart—cheerfully.
Is consistency something that you
keep trying for and just can never
seem to figure out or get there?
You can't attain consistency, and it's
frustrating you, or maybe you've even
just given up The problem is probably
your definition of consistency.
The way that you're picturing it in
your mind is setting you up for failure.
Hi, I'm Misty Winkler
I'm a homeschool mom, homemaker,
grandma, and author of the book
Simplified Organization: Learn
to Love What Must Be Done.
I wanna help as many women
as possible become competent,
cheerful Christian homemakers.
If that's you, you've come to
the right spot, the Christian
homemaking podcast, Simply Convivial
Convivial means enjoying life together,
and that's the kind of atmosphere
that we want to create in our homes.
I run Convivial Circle, a
community helping women to excel at
homemaking and do life cheerfully.
And today, I wanted to share a clip
with you from one of our weekly
seminars in Convivial Circle.
This month's monthly topic is consistency.
And so in the kickoff seminar for the
month, I talked about what consistency
really means for us as women, homemakers,
mothers, and wives in the home.
Consistency does not mean
living like a machine.
And whenever we let machines inform
our productivity analogies, we
are going to feel broken because
we're comparing ourselves to the
wrong mental image, the wrong ideal
Let me help you fix that picture
in your head of what consistency is
supposed to be like and how to make it
more like a tree than like a machine.
Grab a basket of laundry
to fold and let's dig in
Speaker 2: August is all about
consistency, and we have to get
straight what that really means.
Because it's so easy when we are setting
a goal to be more consistent, we just tell
ourselves, "I should be more consistent."
Then we start getting the default
picture in our brain of what
consistency looks like is really
a machine-like consistency, right?
A machine, a factory machine in,
in manufacturing or something,
is designed to give evenly spaced
exact same results every time.
And we live in a mechanical age,
we've just been through 100 years of
industrialization and mechanization and
materialism, which teaches that the stuff
you can see and touch is all that's real.
There is no spiritual
component to the world.
All of this creates a set of beliefs
and pictures of the universe where
the ideal is machine, is machine-like.
And we as humans should be
striving to become more and more
like machines, which is false.
But we fall into this picture in
ways we don't even recognize because
it's just in the air that we breathe.
It's in the books that we read
or the TV shows that we watch.
It's in our vocabulary and our analogies.
And in that way, even the word consistency
can pick up analogies of the machine
And the solution isn't to throw out the
word consistency.
It's a good word, but it's
a word that is multifaceted.
It can mean many different things,
and consistency for a machine
is one thing, but consistency
for a human being is another.
And it's not like, well, machines are 100%
consistent and humans are 80% consistent.
The thing is, machines are consistent
in this one way, and human beings
are consistent in this other way.
They have different natures.
They're different things.
And so consistency for each one
is an entirely different thing
so consistency for women in particular
needs to not be, how am, how am I going
to be the same day after day after day?
Now, I'm also not myself super into making
my plans according to my cycle, and I,
I just can't keep track of all that.
Like, I have not invested the
time to figure all that out.
But I do know the days where it's like,
"And I need to go to bed today earlier
than usual for the sake of everyone."
Generally speaking, I can say, "Okay,
well, now I know that tomorrow I'm
gonna be a little bit out of commission.
I'm gonna be more, like, just on the
couch doing stuff from the couch."
And then I know that that means
that next week I'm probably gonna
be, like, peak productivity.
And so when I'm down with cramps,
it's a time to plan the projects
I'm gonna work on when I wake
up wanting to take on the world.
Like, oh, wait, that
version of me is coming.
It's not now.
It's coming.
I have a minute where I have a
legitimate excuse to just sit.
I'm gonna plan for that.
I'm gonna read more.
And we can fluctuate, and we canâ¦
Like, we can enjoy the fact that we
fluctuate, that we're not the same.
We can enjoy that variety and use it well.
We can steward that well so with
consistency then, our goal shouldn't
be figuring everything out so that we
can do the exact same thing every day.
And you can see if you think about just
how not only do we ourselves personally
operate on a cycle, but we also are put
in a context where we are caretakers.
We're caretakers of the home,
which is inanimate, but we're
caretakers of the people in our home.
And so you have multiple people who
are all different, doing different
things and not predictable.
And so if we get it into our head, and
if we are operating as if it is our job
to make ourselves and our life and our
home consistent, then we are going to
focus on controlling other people, because
people are variables.
And becauseâ¦
Well, if consistency, sameness kind of
consistency was our goal, we would have
to try to orchestrate all of our other
people to somehow be the same every day.
And that's micromanaging and controlling
and generally not helpful or good.
And then you can see how, you
know, someone who's really
into that says, "Well, I can
only have one or two children."
It's like, because that's about as
much variability as I can control.
And then you have moms who have large
families who realized after about baby
three or four, control's not possible.
We're not gonna try for that anymore.
And sometimes you could dip off the end
when, when you realize that you can't have
that sameness consistency and you can't
control everyone, then the temptation is
to just give up and to not do any kind
of management because the only kind of
management we can think of is control
But managing is providing every person in
each situation what they need to thrive.
Like, what is going to
help them long term?
That's what I'm going to give them.
And we have the experience of being
kind of multiple people in one.
You know, there's multiple versions of us
in a way that there's really not with men.
We have all different kinds of mixes that
we've experienced at different times,
and so even if we aren't in a particular
mix moment right now, we kinda, we know
how to do it And so you kind of channel
that, like, "Nope, this is hardcore mode.
This is like brick wall mom moment."
And then you're like, "Oh,
this is soft mom moment.
We need soft place to land."
Like engage that mode.
And so we adapt to what we see
the particular need is right now
to the situation, to the person,
because our long-term vision is
building up people who are capable,
thriving, contributing adults.
And we do have to keep that goal in mind.
Our goal in our homemaking, in our
mothering is not right now peace.
Peace and comfort right now is a bad
goal to control for, to work toward.
That's short-term thinking that is going
to not pan out very pretty long-term.
Always discipline, hard work, good things
come by discomfort and sacrifice and
effort and inconvenience and prayerful
wisdom being exercised in the moment
for a long-term payoff that we're
looking for, delayed gratification.
But if we make our choices based on
what's gonna get me the quickest payoff,
what's gonna get me to peace and comfort
the fastest then we're not gonna get
long-term results that are worth having.
So we have to keep the mission in mind.
Women are just as mission-oriented
as men, but we operate in a
different way, and we operateâ¦
on a different plane Our
job is the people job.
We're caretakers, connectors, culture
makers, tradition makers, and that takes
a different mode of being, which is why
God created another kind of human being.
There's not just one kind, there are two
kinds of human beings, men and women.
And both are necessary for the
world to function, for societies
to flourish, and for God's glory
to be manifest in the world
So when we think about consistency,
we don't wanna think about sameness.
As we, as homemakers, think
about consistency, we wanna
think about faithfulness.
And this is where stability
comes in, steadfastness.
And so I think of this as like
standing in one place and being rooted.
You're rooted in God's word.
You're rooted in a mission.
You're standing firm so that
you're not swayed by the
situation, which is the wind.
The wind that's going around
you is not shaking your core.
It's not toppling you over.
It's not really moving you, actually.
But of course, you're kind of swaying.
It ⦠You are moving in one
sense, in that top visible portion,
it looks like you're moving.
But your trunk is in one place.
You're rooted in one place.
You're not actually moving.
No matter how much you're swaying,
you're actually sticking with the core.
The core is not moving, just
the outward elements are moving.
That counts as consistency, and we tend
to point at all the moving branches and
say, "I just want them all to be still."
It's like, well, then nothing would
be able to be happening in the world.
There'd have to be no wind, no
atmosphere, no anything, no life
for the branches to be still.
Every once in a while you might have
a still moment, but overall, tree
branches are gonna sway in the wind, and
they're actually designed to do that.
It's not a problem at all.
We get weird hangups where we're like,
"No, the ideal tree is perfectly still."
Like, no.
The ideal tree, it's doing
what it's made to do there.
It's in one place firmly planted,
and the branches sway in the wind.
That's actually what they're supposed
to do And so as we sway in the wind
of our day-to-day life, we're adapting
and adjusting and giving each person
what they need and rolling with the
punches and applying our rooted,
grounded mission in the world based
on how the wind is blowing that day.
But we're faithful.
We're staying in one spot.
We have one mission.
We have one God that we
are keeping our eyes on.
And so everything else we can adapt
to and work with, when we're all
just working with it faithfully
All kinds of things can
derail the normal plan.
And so when the normal routines
get interrupted like that, get
interrupted with real life, we
cannot or should not tell ourselves
this means I'm not consistent
' cause it's not true.
If your child wakes up with wet sheets
on the bed, and so you give them a
bath and you start the laundry, and
that's not something that happens every
single day, it's just happening in
response to today, you are consistently
serving your family and caring for
your children according to their needs.
You just have to pick things
back up again, and you might
adjust things when you do that.
That is life, and that is stability.
When, after a time off for whatever
reason, you come back, you come back to
putting your plan in place and working it
with wisdom and engagement in your life.
You're not trying to implement your
plans or your systems or your schedule
like a- a straight jacket that you're
trying to suit yourself and everyone
else into But you're using it and
applying it with wisdom and attention
Yes, Stacy says, "I often think that
if it doesn't happen at the same time
every day, then I'm not being consistent.
But I can get up early to drop my boys
off for a hike and come back home and make
my bed and do my morning routine, or even
sit and enjoy coffee before that too."
Yeah.
Like, you know what your morning routine
is, and you know it happens in the
morning, but today I had to be out of the
house before that, which is not normal.
That doesn't mean that I don't have to
do the morning routine or that it ⦠Y-
you're actually being consistent
if you do it at a different time.
That's more consistent because
you're following through anyway.
You're coming back to it anyway, not only
doing it when circumstances are ideal.
And same with the Bible reading as well.
It's so easy to think like,
"Well, this is my time.
This is when and where, and it's
all set up, and unless this happens,
it's just not gonna happen at all
That desire for it to be the same is
actually what's preventing consistency.
You say, "Well, this is
consistency and I can't have it."
It's like, yeah, you can't have sameness.
That's not gonna happen.
And you don't need it either.
Consistency is coming back to do
the most important things, following
through when you're able, as soon as
you're able, like, when it makes sense.
It's doing it anyway in less
than ideal circumstances.
It doesn't really matter
what the ideal time is.
If you did it at a less than ideal time,
you are being more consistent Because
you're following through, you're sticking
with it, you're putting first things first
And that is going to give you more
follow-through over time than trying to
orchestrate ideal timing day over day.
You don't need ideal timing.
That's not a requirement for consistency.
The requirement for consistency is
coming back to follow through on
what you need to follow through on
A super helpful thing to
continue to practice our
consistency on is the daily card.
We just finished a month of our
daily card challenge, and if you keep
practicing that with consistency,
which is still the same as last month
Not same as in every single day, right?
But last month you completed the challenge
if you made a card 20 days out of 31 days.
That's consistent.
Doing it 20 days out of
31 requires consistency.
Same thing for August.
Keep consistently making your daily card.
Whether or not it happens at the ideal
time, whether or not you have to remake
it halfway through the day, consistently
time after time, day over day,
come back to the daily card.
If you don't make one one day or two
days or three days, come back to the
daily card, and that's consistency
so there at the end of this abridged
version of the workshop, I talked about
being consistent with the daily card.
I have a free training called
From Overwhelmed to Organized, the
one practice that makes all the
difference, and a little heads up,
that one practice is the daily card.
If you want to get more consistency
in your life, if you wanna feel
more organized without being
overwhelmed and without trying to
control your life and everyone in
it, then this workshop is for you.
It's totally free.
Go to simplyconvivial.com/organized,
simplyconvivial.com/organized
to get this workshop for free
And then repent, rejoice, repeat