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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.
Writing things down is the equivalent
of having a drink of water.
Write things down.
If you feel crazy in your head, just start
writing things down and see what happens.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the Christian
homemaking podcast, Simply Convivial.
I'm Misty Winkler, homemaker, homeschool
mom, grandma, and author of the book Home
is for Hospitality: Why Your Home and
Homemaking Matter Convivial means living
life together with joy, and that's the
kind of home atmosphere that we want to
create as Christian wives and mothers.
We can do that when we
repent, rejoice, repeat.
So join me for this
quick attitude pep talk
that will help you learn
to love what must be done.
Grab a basket of laundry
to fold and let's dig in
so as we plan, as we make our plans, as
we try to get stuff done in the summer,
we want to, um, keep our attitude
about that plan solid and cheerful.
We don't want to be so focused on getting
our project done that we are rude and
overbearing to the people in our house.
And we have to recognize that
mothering and homemaking, just
not even the homemaking projects.
You know, I'm not talking about
sourdough and sewing and canning.
I'm talking about cleaning the
toilets and sweeping the floors.
Like, maintenance of the home takes
a lot of time, and it's stuff that
we usually don't count on our plan.
So for these weekly resets, um,
I have the a, a free resource for
you, um, the weekly dashboard.
So when we are making plans, the
whole point is figuring out what we
should be spending our time doing.
You know, what are we counting?
And often when we make our plans
and we write things down, they
are wishful thinking plans.
We are not thinking about, um,
what really needs to be done.
We are thinking about what we would like
to get done if no one ever interrupted us,
if no one had bloody noses, spilled milk,
or, you know, was hungry between meals.
Then we would get so much done.
But the fact is that managing that
home with the constant caretaking
is our job, and there might be
seasons where we have to actually
acknowledge that on our written plan.
But too often, our default is like,
"Well, since my wishful thinking
plans can't happen, then I'm just
gonna give up planning entirely.
Like, why bother writing things
down if the things that I want to
get done aren't gonna get done?"
Right?
This is sometimes the way we think,
and those are not the two options.
We can give ourselves a focus with
a written plan so that we are less
distractable, and, I mean, distractions
are a huge problem right now.
We need tactics to overcome distraction,
and a written plan is a key part.
But not just any written plan,
not an overcomplicated plan.
You don't need a planner with stickers
and color coding and all the things.
You need a daily card with your top three.
You need very basic daily habits
for yourself and for the home.
And then you need to give
yourself options for things you
will work on if you have time.
We call that a running list.
Often the mistake we make
with planning is that,
We think that if I just fill in
the blanks of the planner that I
purchased, then I have a good plan.
Like, my job isn't really making the
plan so much as filling in the blanks,
as if the planner that I purchased
is my worksheet, and if I get the
answers right on the worksheet,
then it's g- the plan's gonna work.
But that's not what a
planner page is at all.
That kind of just good student,
good employee mentality and mode
of operating does not work at home.
And adding in worksheets to your day
isn't gonna make it work, and it's
not the worksheet that's the problem.
But then we spend our time browsing
Amazon or Etsy or, you know, making our
own planner pages because we think if I
just have the right blanks on the page
and then I fill them in, then something
magic will happen, and I'll be happy
with myself at the end of the day.
But it's not about the planner
page, although I do think
a planner page is helpful.
But your planner page could
be just a spiral notebook.
I have several friends who their
planner is just a spiral notebook,
and they write things down.
They make notes to self.
It's their collection of lists,
and they've got their notebook,
and they've got their calendar.
And the- that's how they run their
life, and that is completely adequate.
Because you don't need to fill in
blanks to have a complete plan.
You need to make notes to self for
what notes you need to see to help your
week progress and to remind yourself
of what needs to happen on different
days or what needs to happen this week.
You know, remind yourself of what
you're procrastinating on so that
you can stop procrastinating, not be
distracted, and recognize that the
little things that we are doing count
just because, you know, you didn't
get to X, Y, Z that you really wanted
to, just because the pantry is not as
organized as you would like, because,
you know, something spilled in there
and it had to wait for tomorrow.
That is life.
And we can roll with that and not let
everything not, every little thing
not going our way count against us
and become evidence to our internal
story that we are not good at this,
that we are failing, that we should
just stop trying because it's never
going to be what we want it to be.
That is a false story, a lie in your
head that is taking you out of the
game, and it's imperative, it's vital
that we tell ourselves the truth about
our life, that we tell ourselves the
truth about our work and our abilities.
And we are able to do the work
that God has called us to do.
It might make us tired, and it might not.
It likely will not turn out the
way we wanted it to turn out.
But that's okay
You know, there's, um,
reminds me of Proverbs 19:21.
There are many proverbs
that speak to planning.
One of my favorites is, "Many are the
plans in the mind of a man, but it is
the purpose of the Lord that will stand."
Your plans are not as important as
God's, and whatever is happening is
the life that God is sending you.
And so you can take it.
You can accept it.
You can work with it.
And I know many are the
plans in my mind, for sure.
I am never short of plans.
But just because I have a plan doesn't
mean that that's what's going to happen
And no matter what I plan, I need to
be able to accept the providence of
God day by day and accept that as the
new plan and realign and reassess.
You're always making these judgment
calls about using your time and energy.
It is an economics decision, right?
There are scarce resources that
have multiple applications.
And so living, living life, especially
in home, in a home with, you know,
you're managing many lives in your
home, many different responsibilities.
And so there are more uses for the
scarce resources, whether that's
time, money, energy, attention.
There are more uses than resources.
And we think that that means that we
have to do something, like we just don't
have enough resources, and so we should,
um, do things to either increase our
resources or reduce the options, right,
the ways that those resources could be
used so that they can come out equal.
And, and we're trying to get to the point
where they come out equal so that we
don't have to make those judgment calls,
when actually getting good at making
the judgment calls is the whole point.
That is growth in wisdom.
That's what we're supposed to be learning.
And so it's like we're trying to take
away the whole point of the lesson.
The real key to ma- making plans
that help us is to make a plan that
acknowledges our limits, that we will
have more options, more things we could
do, good things we could do with our
time and attention and our energy.
But for right now, we are going to focus
on, we are going to choose these things.
And unless God comes and disrupts
that, this is what we're doing.
We acknowledge God might disrupt that
for us, and then that will be fine.
But what we don't want is
to just be all, "Woe is me.
I can't do everything that I want
to do, so I'm going to do nothing."
And like when we, when we just put
it that way, that sounds ridiculous.
But if we're honest,
we all have been there.
Where it's like, I don't
wanna make a choice.
Making a choice is too hard.
I don't know if it's the right
choice, and so I'm gonna make
no choice at all and do nothing.
And like that is the dep- that
is the story of the servant who
buried his talent in the ground.
He's like, "I'm not gonna go
risk and put myself out there.
I'm just gonna keep it safe."
That is not an option.
That is disobedience.
So we need to put ourselves out there.
This is what I wanna work on.
And it's in practicing making those
judgment calls that we get better at it.
You might choose the, you
know, not the best thing.
You're trying to choose between
different good things, and maybe you
bit off more than you could chew.
Maybe your goal was outsized
for the time that you had.
You're learning.
And so it's not something that you have
to say, "Well, you know, I'm bad at this.
I did, it didn't work the first
week, and so I'm bad at this.
I'm not gonna do it anymore."
And it's like, that's like what
every, you know, second or third
grader says on the first spelling
or math test that they bomb.
"Must be bad at it.
Can't, can't get any farther.
Let's just quit."
And you wouldn't let your child do that,
and you should not let yourself do that.
You have to actually practice and
try and figure out and grow in wisdom
and discernment in deciding what you
should be doing And seeing how it went.
You want your plan, your daily card,
and your dashboard, and your calendar to
reflect your real work, your real job.
You expand your capacity by going
all in on the base responsibilities,
and you work out from there.
So then you have the daily card,
that's ⦠There's a spot on the
dashboard for that, and you'll see that
there is, um, there's a, a running list
on the side, a column of just blanks.
These are, like, put ⦠Give
yourselves options.
What could you do this
week in the margins?
What needs to be done?
Like, put some time into identifying
10 to 15-minute tasks that would
make a difference, things you could
do, things that you should do,
things you've been procrastinating,
and just keep that running list.
So a running list, I like
to think of as options.
Because in the moment when the
st- you know, whatever is done,
too often the tempting thing is to
say, "Well, I don't know what to do
next, so I'll just open my phone.
So I'll just, you know, do nothing."
When we have a lot more we should
be doing, but we haven't identified
what it is, and we think, "Well, when
I have time, I'll figure it out."
But figuring it out or remembering
is a whole separate deal.
And when you have that time in the
afternoon, you wanna just be able to
do it without having to spend that
filtering, thinking, identifying time.
So during your weekly review, you will
give yourself some options for work
that needs to be done in bite-size
baby step pieces, and then you have
a go-to spot when there's time.
And maybe you'll have a week where
there isn't, and maybe you'll have a
week where everything was canceled,
and suddenly you have a free day,
and you can knock out a whole bunch.
But you'll get more done
because you have identified it.
You know what you're working on.
You have options to focus on.
Writing things down so that you
aren't keeping things in your head
frees your head to focus and think
and really be engaged with the
people and the work in front of you.
And then you have a place to go.
Or if something pops into your
head and you're like, "Oh, wait,
I totally forgot to do this.
I need to go do this," you write it down.
You have a place to write it down where
you know you'll see it And we, I think,
would have a lot, um, clearer mental space
as mothers if we would just write things
down instead of keeping them in our head.
If you suffer from mental spiraling,
and I'm not sure there are any of us
that don't do that sometimes, writing
things down is one of the basic things.
Just like if you're, if you
have headaches, like before you
go to the doctor, you should
try drinking water, right?
You might just be dehydrated.
You- we don't need to go jump all the
way to the end of like, "I must have
a medical condition that needs drugs."
Like, well, how much water have you had?
Writing things down is the equivalent
of having a drink of water.
Write things down.
If you feel crazy in your head, just start
writing things down and see what happens.
You write it down, then you can think
about it, you can pray about it, you can
talk about it, instead of just letting
it all fill up your brain space and stall
you out you're making notes to yourself,
you're learning along the way, and you are
working toward increasing your capacity
and enjoying the life that God is sending
you day by day, by being engaged in it,
by using the life that God is sending
you to grow in wisdom and discernment
You can end the day satisfied.
You can enjoy.
You can learn to love what must be done.
You can enjoy your life at
home, including the dishes and
the meals and the everything.
Speaker 2: You can get that free weekly
dashboard I was mentioning by going to
simplyconvivial dot com slash dashboard.
That's simplyconvivial dot com
slash dashboard to grab your
copy of the weekly dashboard
You'll also get a reminder to
join me next time I go live