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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.
Speaker: welcome to the Christian
homemaking podcast, Simply Convivial.
I'm Misty Winkler, homemaker,
homeschooling mom of five,
grandma, and author of the book
Home is for Hospitality: Why
Your Home and Homemaking Matter.
Convivial means living together with joy,
and that's the kind of home atmosphere
that we want to create in our homes.
And today, we're gonna be talking
about this with Lauren Mefford.
Lauren is a Christian wife, homeschooling
mom of six, and she helps women manage
all the moving pieces of the home.
After moving from the workforce and
academia to full-time home life, the
transition was so difficult as she
learned to manage the home, that she
had to learn to embrace her role with
greater joy, and now she helps other women
do the same with her YouTube channel,
The Rooted Rhythms Method Course, and
The Rooted Homemakers Collective, as
well as The Rooted Home podcast, which
she records with her husband Jeremy,
about all things family and home.
So thank you so much for
joining me today, Lauren.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank
you for having me, Misty.
Speaker: And so I would just love to
hear more of that story of, um, having
the career, the work life, academia,
and then, how you decided to leave that
behind and go full time at home, and
then the differences in mindset and
productivity between those two things.
I know both of us really enjoy
productivity talk, and planning, and
that kind of thing, but so much of
it is geared for work life, and it's
hard- Mm-hmm ⦠to just know what
it's supposed to look like at home.
So tell us more about your story there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
It's, so there's definitely
a lot I could say about that.
It's very different going from
the workforce to academia.
Now, I was, or to home.
But I was in the nursing field,
so it is very people centric.
Um, but it, in a very, very different way.
So yeah, whenever Iâ¦
We didn't get married until we were 30,
so that means that there was a decent
amount of life lived before that.
I was just going to the next thing.
I, we, I did missions.
I was very globally minded.
I was planning on moving to Kenya and-
They were just, there was a lot there.
Uh, nurse for a while, did global disaster
nursing, got my PH- or pursued my PhD.
It just was the next thing.
I had a lot of people that basically
I never would have imagined that
that's what I would have been doing.
Um, I was not a Christian until I was
24, and so the Lord did a whole lot.
Some wonderful people took me under
their wing and brought me up, and, uh,
had a wonderful pastor and his wife
who kind of took me under their wing.
I was in their home every week watching
their five kids, um, in between work
and school every week for five years.
So got to dabble in home life a
little bit, 'cause I really wanted
to be a wife and a mom, but it
wasn't an opportunity at that point.
So I was just like, all right, well,
hopefully I'll get married one day.
But if not, we'll just keep going.
So anyway, went to school and kept going.
So fast-forward to when
I'm 30, I am almostâ¦
I'm about, well, I'm probably
three-fourths of the way through
the program, still working,
and we pr- we get married.
We get married quickly, uh, and
then I got pregnant quickly.
And, um, by the time we had Caleb,
our oldest boy, I was almost
done, and I was just plan- I was
like, "I want to finish this now."
Jeremy was like, "I don't
care if you finish it or not."
Um, but I, I, I was like,
I'm, I was determined to just
finish it, 'cause I wasâ¦
I'd already done all that work.
Anyway, I was working
part-time at the time.
Shortly thereafter, we ha- we ended
up bringing our girls into our home.
So we adopted our girls, and it wasâ¦
That's what brought me home, basically.
So long story short, we thought my
parents were gonna be able to watch
them while I was working part-time.
Um, they were gonna move up
here, and they ended up not.
And we were not about
to put them in daycare.
It was already a very traumatic
background, and we did not wanna
put them through any of that.
So they, they needed me home, and
I needed to be home, and I was deep
down resistant to it initially.
I knew in my head that it was
the right thing, but it was
hard because it, I justâ¦
All I knew was work and school, you know?
And I wanted, like I said, I wanted
to be a mom, but in that, in that
environment- I mean, you know, the
culture right now is very anti-family.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2: And antiâ¦
It's a very feminist culture, and so that
bleeds into academia, as you can imagine.
Um, even as, for a Christian, like,
even if I'm not wanting to believe
those things, I'm naturally notâ¦
I'm being affected.
You know, you're affected
by the water you swim in.
And so the, the idea of being a mom, like,
just a mom, uh, from somebody who had
been in that culture, it just felt wrong,
or it felt constricting, or it feltâ¦
I don't know.
It was totally crazy now in
hindsight, but that's how I felt.
And so anyway, the Lord
was really kind toâ¦
and He was very patient with me.
Um, there was an article I
read that was really helpful.
I can't even remember what it was.
But it, it helped me make that
transition, and I'm really glad I did.
Um, obviously.
I'm very glad I did now.
But, uh, there was one book that I read.
Do you know who Sally Clarkson is?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so she wrote
a book, Mission of Motherhood.
Yeah.
And when I was pregnant with Caleb, there
was, like, one line that stuck out to me
and still sticks out to me to this day.
That she said something about embracing
motherhood, and that was when the idea was
introduced to me of being fully in, and
I felt convicted, 'cause I was like, "I
don't know if I wanna fully embraceâ¦"
Like, it, it was almost like it
was more of a thing on the side-
Speaker: Mm-hmm
⦠Speaker 2: while I was taking
care of everything else, you know?
'Cause that's where all
my attention had been.
So, the Lord has done a drastic mindset
shift over the last, since then.
And, um, I can say by His grace and
by a lot of, uh, discipleship and
repentance for my own attitude, and
growth i- in, towards my children, like,
He has done a really good work at ch-
changing me to where I lo- I c- I can
actually em- I, I embrace motherhood.
I love motherhood, I love the home, and
I would not wanna be anywhere else now.
So, thanks be to God.
I think that if, if you're not embracing
motherhood, it is gonna be a lot harder.
But anyway, um, so, but I still didn't
know what I was doing at that point for
a long time, and it was just surviving
until nap time for a long time.
And then surviving until Jeremy got
home- ⦠once the kids were up.
And so I was just so flabbergasted
that, you know, you spend all
this time studying theory and all
these lofty things, and you're not
prepared for the most, like, basicâ¦
Like, I couldn't even
cook dinner very well.
Like, I could- I didn't know how to
manage- It was, uh, I, I had spent all
that time studying all of these things,
and yet I didn't know how to do what
was right in front of me, you know?
Mm-hmm.
It's absurd.
So once, um, I, I just desperately
wanted to learn tho- those things and
kept-- I sought it out through different
means, and little by little grew.
But, um, I would say it was very
hard to love being home until Iâ¦
It's hard to love what
you don't know how to do.
Yeah.
You know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And so I think in our c-
there's so many women today that are in
the same boat of, like, really desperately
wanting, wanting to love it and wanting
to be home, but they don't feel equipped,
and sometimes they can only think that
it's just their spiritual depravity.
And not that there's also practical
things to learn that can help-
Mm-hmm ⦠you know, alongside
our need for growth, you know?
So anyway, I'm, that's why I'm, I'm so
glad you're doing what you're doing.
Mm-hmm.
And and that's why I'm
excited to do what I'm doing.
Um, I just think that it's so needed,
Speaker: the, the water you swim in
does matter, and even when we, like
in our heads believe one thing, having
that come out our fingertips, come
out our lives, and knowing what that
looks like and being happy with it
is completely- Mm-hmm ⦠different.
And, uh, the s- the skills that make us
good students and good employees don't
translate easily at all, if at all-
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm
Speaker: to running a home
and caring for children.
And m- many women have
never seen it done at all.
And so- Yeah ⦠you know, it's wanting
this, yeah, something that you've, you
don't know what it is supposed to look
like, so you don't, don't even know
if you're doing a good job or not.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
And to that point, you
know, in the workforce or in
school, you have all of these,
objectives.
Like-
Speaker: Yeah
⦠Speaker 2: m- managers give you exactly,
or, or s- uh, professors give you
exactly what they're expecting of you.
And in the home, you don't know
when e- when enough is enough.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2: You know?
You don't r- yeah, like you said, you
don't know if you're doing it right.
Um, because even our mothers and
grandmothers, a lot, since the
industrial re- industrial revolution,
I do think that that really affected
generations of women in the home-
Speaker: Mm-hmm
Speaker 2: to where we don't
have these skills passed down
nearly as much as we used to.
At least that's what I'm hearing from
a lot of women who are older than me.
Um, so yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
I went, it was, this was years
ago, I had a blog post on, um,
having your kids help with chores.
And some internet troll, you
know, who's probably just-
out Googling kid chore stuff and
leaving his two cents, um, he said,
"You don't need to spend years
having kids practice do chores."
Um, it doesn't take that much time
or work to train kids to do something
that anyone can learn in five minutes.
Speaker 2: Not true.
Obviously you've never done it.
Speaker: And that just was so
illuminating to me that that is the
message that we hear, and that's
the background idea that we have.
I know I did when, even though I
was homeschooled and my mom stayed
at home, and I saw, saw it all, I
still came into homemaking thinking,
" This is gonna be a piece of cake.
Like, anyone can do this."
And so I get the easy job.
I'll just, you know, it'll, it'll be
fine and easy, and then it was not.
And I couldn't even- Yeah
I couldn't even accept
that it wasn't easy.
Like s- yeah, something, I thought
something had to be wrong with me-
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm
⦠Speaker: because it was easy
work, and I was failing at it,
so what does that say about me?
Instead of thinking, like, maybe
it's not actually something anyone
could learn to do in five minutes.
Speaker 2: No.
No.
It's such a process.
I, I'm still learning.
Yeah.
You know?
It's not something thatâ¦
'Cause it's not just scrubbing a toilet.
It's there are so many plates
that are spinning, you know?
Mm-hmm.
And which plates do you keep spinning,
and which do you let go for a season?
And how do you, how do you nurture souls
and care for the people inside the home,
and not keep the plates spinning over here
at the expense of these relationships?
Like, it's not just, there's just,
there's so much that goes into it.
And to y- your original question too,
the latter part of that, I, productivity
in the academic world and the medical
world, oh man, I like, I learned,
you had to learn how to do it all.
Like, you had to learn how to juggle.
It's hard when you have multiple patients
that you've gotta take care of and
they're all needing something, you know?
But it's, even though it was
people-centric, it's still e- easy
to not really care as much about the
people in the way that we ought to.
So yeah, at home it
was easy to carry that.
I'm still, I, I learned to take care
of things, not always very well,
but still got stuff done kind of,
but it was at the expense of people.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2: You know?
And so learning, that was something that,
that one big difference I would say from,
um, productivity out there and learning to
be faithful in the home here is- Learning
to prioritize what God prioritizes.
Like, what he says is right and good,
which is in Titus 2, love your husband,
love your children, manage the home.
Like, there's oth-
there's multiple things.
It's not just the practicals, you know?
The practi- though the
practicals are important, so.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker: So if someone comes and
asks for h- you know, they're in
that kind of same situation as
you were, where, where do youâ¦
where would you have them start?
Like, what's the, the starting
point for embracing motherhood and
growing in faithfulness at home?
Speaker 2: I think first is prayer.
That really d- I mean, that really doesâ¦
It's easy to forget.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2: And it is n- absolutely
necessary for the heart to change.
So prayer, and when you see your own
attitude coming, you know, flaring up,
'cause it does for all of us, it does
for me today, I have to repent everyâ¦
Just get, get in the habit of repenting
whenever that pops up, whether
you're having a bad attitude towards
your child, or you're huffing and
puffing because someone walked in
on your floor that you just mopped.
You know, just all the things
that happen in the home.
Those are divine providences by God.
We can trust Him with it, you know?
Like, we gotta learn to, yeah.
So I would say prayer, asking the
Lord to help make you a gracious woman
who embraces motherhood, the gracious
woman who gets honors, who gets honor.
I pray that t- today, every day.
Um, so I would say pray, but
then also very practically, it is
important to have a skeleton routine.
I call it the bare minimum blueprint.
That's basically, like, bare bones, how
do you survive the day and make sure that
the bare essentials get done, you know?
So I think imp- it's
important to have a plan.
You know, how do you get food
on the table at dinnertime?
How do you keep clothes on people's
backs, people loved, and maybe one
room reasonably tidy, you know?
And also while you're getting
dressed and taking care of yourself.
So I'd say very practically, that's
usually where I tell people to start, is
have that very minimal, practical plan.
Get used to using it.
Don't be married to it in a way
where you're so rigid you can't
be flexible if something happens.
And then I think people can
learn to layer from there.
They can not necessarily add on things,
but make things more rhythmic or, um, a
part of m- learn to use the time well in
the day, but it's just little by little.
So I think sometimes we get in trouble
when we try to overhaul everything,
'cause we get so tired and flustered
by how cluttered the closet is and
how, you know, things aren't the way
that we want them to be, and I think we
end up shooting ourselves in the foot.
Wait, is that right?
Yeah.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker 2: Analogies.
Speaker: Yeah.
I was like- Yeah ⦠pull everything
out so then I can make it perfect,
and then you c- don't have enough
time to do that, and every- it's worse
than it was before 'cause you have-
Speaker 2: Yeah
⦠Speaker: to go through.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, and then you
don't get in the habit of actually
maintaining it, and so it's just gonna
end up right back where it was, you know?
So.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2: Gotta, gotta get in
the habit of maintaining, I think.
That's a good one.
Speaker: That was a hard lesson for me.
I wanted to have everything just set up,
and I figured if I set it up the right
way- I guess I wouldn't have to main- I
don't know what I thought would happen,
but it would maintain itself, and that's-
Speaker 2: Yeah
Speaker: not the way the world works.
Speaker 2: No.
That, I know I said this in our podcast
when you came onto mine, but, like,
your book, uh, I, that was such a
helpful concept to me when you pointed
out the rebooting the computer.
Like, if you look at chores and taking
care of the home like you're, you're
resetting it for life, it's suchâ¦
It's just such a helpful mindset to
have because you can take it when people
come through those floors with dirty
feet after you just mopped it, 'cause
there, that wasn't the end, you know?
. You're, you're resetting it for
life, and so we don't have to hold
on to the clean closet, you know?
Weâ¦
Anyway, so.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
It's all for using.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Very helpful.
Speaker: Well, thank you so much
for joining me today, Lauren.
Where can people find you online
and all of that good stuff?
Speaker 2: You can find most of what I
offer and talk about at laurenmefford.com
or my YouTube channel,
which is Lauren Mefford, so.
Um, M-E-F-F-O-R-D.
You can just look me up, and
that's where you can find me.
Speaker: Great, and we'll put links
and all of that in the description.
And yes, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Thanks for, uh,
having me on today, Misty.
It was great.