Simply Convivial: Biblical Homemaking, Homeschooling & Mom Life—Without Burnout

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

Maybe you start off homeschooling with grand visions and high hopes. Maybe you change your approach and your style and think that will fix the bad days and the bad attitudes.It turns out that even in spite of best laid plans, principles, and practices, we’re teaching real children.They don’t always like what they should. They don’t always want the true, good, and beautiful. Sometimes (oftentimes) they even complain.What’s a homeschool mom to do?Maybe you spot it in the sloppy work, or the sighs and slouching. Often the children are not reluctant to voice their opposition: They don’t like the book. They hate fractions. They don’t want to write an a that way.And then you come upon those “inspiring” quotes at the end of a bad day:The question is not, – how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education – but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? – Charlotte MasonAnd you know you’re in trouble, because your child is certain he doesn’t care, not one bit.In fact, maybe just that morning he muttered or even exclaimed, “I hate nature walks!” True story. It happens.Have I failed? Is it time to give up?No, not yet.I haven’t failed. I just know what my task is now.As both the mother and the teacher, it is our job to make our kids care.Our job isn’t to help them pass tests or memorize facts or check boxes.Our job is to make them care.C.S. Lewis, Augustine, and Aristotle tell us it is so:St. Augustine defines virtue as ordo amoris, the ordinate condition of the affections in which every object is accorded that kind and degree of love which is appropriate to it. Aristotle says that the aim of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought.It’s our aim. It’s our job, not a byproduct we hope for, but what we’re trying to do.And it’s oh so much harder than checking boxes, isn’t it?

IF you are obeying the One Whom you ought to obey, you will be happier, because you'll be doing what you were created to do.

You don't necessarily need to add more productive hours into your day. You need to add more true rest to your day if you want to manage your time better.