The Christian Homemaking Podcast: Simply Convivial with Mystie Winckler

Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.comThis month inside the Simply Convivial Circle we’re talking all about procedure lists – when to keep them and how to keep them simple.One key principle that applies is keeping them short & specific. But that’s harder than it sounds! So today I’m sharing an excerpt from a member-only mentoring session where we discussed what a priority is and how it affects our planning. I think you’ll find it helpful as you attempt to choose what matters most and what the right next thing is.When it’s hard to get started because there’s too much to do, procedure checklists help us prioritize our tasks and give us the shortcut to momentum we need.What is a priority? Can you even have more than one?In this episode we discuss how to find your priorities and what it looks like to use them. Enjoy!How can a procedure checklist help you move from an overwhelmed mom to a confident and capable mom growing in momentum? Download the Procedure Checklist Brain Dump guide to walk through my easy process for figuring out that answer for yourself. No one else has the answers that will fit your life. Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.com

Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.comAre you an overwhelmed mom? Frustrated with too much to do? A set of procedure checklists is just what you need to get the traction you want. When you’re looking at how to organize your life, getting a few key procedure checklists is the perfect place to begin.This month inside the Simply Convivial Circle we’re talking all about procedure lists – when to keep them and how to keep them simple.We often think we need some fancy or complicated solution to solve our home management woes, but more often than not, a simple, standard practice is all we need.After all, home management is not about achieving your perfectionist ideals, but rather about accepting your responsibilities and your constraints so you can walk in faithfulness and fruitfulness.When it’s hard to get started because there’s too much to do, procedure checklists are the shortcut to momentum you need.How many times have you slumped into a chair or stayed, a bit numb, in bed, because the number of things to do that day was completely overwhelming?Sure, we can declutter our lives, our homes, and our to-do lists, but that’s a process that takes time. What do we do right now? How do we get up and get moving? What is it that’s paralyzing us? Why are we overwhelmed moms much of the time? Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.com

Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.comThe truth about any athlete able to maintain balance in awkward positions is that although they look stable and unmoving, their entire body is actually tense and continually on the move, adjusting and twitching to keep their position. It looks effortless, but their entire body is constantly engaged to make it possible.We, however, in our lives, have something better than appearing to be stable. In our lives we can have stability because we are not our own source of stability. God is our rock, and our stability is found in Christ. So no matter how much we wobble, visibly or not, we can have a foundational assurance, trust, and security – not in our ability to handle all things, but in God’s ability to handle all things.This is an excerpt from one of twelve lessons inside Simplified Organization: Organize Your Attitude. It’s called Wobble in Balance. Enjoy.When we say balance, we tend to picture mechanical scales calibrated just right. We’re looking for the proper proportions to keep things “just right.” We want to find that sweet spot where we feel in control of our lives and on top of our duties.True life balance, however, especially for moms at home, is not a matter of perfection, achievement, or equality. It is about making the needed adjustments as you go.Watch a ballerina balance, watch a tight-rope walker balance. Try yourself to balance on one foot. Successful human balance is not frozen or motionless. As you balance, you make tiny compensations throughout your whole body. If you start to topple, you can stay upright by moving back a bit. Even when you look still from a distance, you can feel the tiny twitches within your body as you balance.It is the same in life. We are not seeking a frozen, perfected balance in life as a mother as if our life is a set of scales. We are in a human balancing act much more like a ballerina, who has strengthened her muscles enough to hold a position and then change as needed, but whose body is always making micro-corrections and compensations.For awhile, one vocation or one task might take over. But that time passes and we compensate by putting it on the back burner and putting more attention into what we had neglected for a time. As long as we come back around and make healthy compensations, this is balance. This is living out our vocations and our priorities – doing what needs to be done, and making small adjustments and shifts as needed to keep upright and avoid injury. The more we do so, the stronger we get, and the easier it becomes. The stronger we get, the more it looks effortless or even static, but we know, we can see, the tiny compensations being made as we go.Our life balance is always a wobble, and that is as it should be.The truth about any athlete able to maintain balance in awkward positions is that although they look stable and unmoving, their entire body is actually tense and continually on the move, adjusting and twitching to keep their position. It looks effortless, but their entire body is constantly engaged to make it possible.We, however, in our lives, have something better than appearing to be stable. In our lives we can have stability because we are not our own source of stability. God is our rock, and our stability is found in Christ. So no matter how much we wobble, visibly or not, we can have a foundational assurance, trust, and security – not in our ability to handle all things, but in God’s ability to handle all things.Balance life through deliberate practice.Awhile back I was listening to a radio interview of a musician-athlete. She talked about the willingness to accept the drudgery of deliberate, painful, boring practice being an essential element to her success in both music and sports. To be good at something, you have to work at it even when it is not fun or interesting or exciting. In fact, a majority of the time spent on it will not be fun or interesting or exciting, but the mastery produced by practice will be satisfying.This mentality of deliberate practice is applicable to housekeeping, organization, and to any other learned skill. The actual practice of it is rarely interesting or fun or fulfilling, but satisfaction can be found in improvement, in growing, even when it doesn’t feel like anything is really being accomplished. You’re just doing your scales. Just as in housework, when mastering an instrument or a sport, you very rarely get that moment of something being really completed. It is ongoing, never-arriving, always-room-for-improvement work.Yet with both an instrument or a sport, we assume it is worthwhile and admirable for a person to dedicate himself to mastery. We call such people role models or heroes, accomplished people.Can the same not be said for homemakers? Surely it can be. We can become accomplished in faithfulness.Faithfulness doesn’t imply large, impressive deeds. Faithfulness is all about doing what’s in front of you – your own duty, however humble that is – reliably and earnestly.Most of what we as mothers do all day are little grains of sand: read a book, correct a child, make a meal, sweep a floor, change a diaper. Our days are full of small tasks, but their smallness does not mean they are insignificant. It is in these ways that we love our families. Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.com

Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.comBalance is something that we all strive for – at least sometimes.  Sometimes we definitely give up. What’s the right balance in our home management duties? What’s the right balance in seeking balance? Today Virginia Lee Rogers and I are chatting about balance, why it’s so hard, and how to keep it in perspective. We want balance because life feels wobbly. Today my friend and Simply Convivial customer support manager Virginia Lee Rogers are talking about why we feel wobbly and … Read MoreThe post Ep #109 – What to do when life feels wobbly, a conversation with Virginia Lee Rogers appeared first on Simply Convivial.Support the show (https://www.simplyconvivial.com/membership) Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.com

Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.comSeptember’s theme topic inside Simply Convivial Membership is balance, and one of our members, Julie, summed it up perfectly: “I think that’s why so many programs and planners and classes or groups are appealing, because they often promise that key to life that we all feel like we’re missing. I always feel most balanced when I am truly centered on the true Center — the more I abide in Christ, the more I am attending to His word and living out the truth of Scriptures, I feel more confident about the decisions I make throughout the day.”Amen!There is no amount of balance that will make all you’d like to do fit into your day. Your time, my time, is limited.This episode is an excerpt of a troubleshooting session I did with Simply Convivial Members on September 2nd, all about time budgets. Several of the courses inside membership give directions for completing a time budget, so we dug deep into why it’s important and what traps we’re likely to fall into as we work on them. Every week inside Simply Convivial Membership we do a thirty minute topic-specific troubleshooting session. The full replays are added to the member-only podcast, but here’s a clip of a couple best-of moments for you as you consider balancing your time.Balance is such a tricky topic, because when we uncover what we mean when we talk about it, we uncover our unrealistic expectations that usually boil down to perfectionism.So if we want to work on realistic balance, that begins by assessing and managing our time effectively. I do this by creating a time budget. Just like a money budget, a time budget isn’t about wishful thinking. It’s about looking at what’s actually available and how best to spend that. Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.com

Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.comBalance.The dictionary defines the verb to balance as "to keep or put something in a steady position so that it does not fall" or "to offset or compare the value of one thing with another"The first definition is the one we usually mean when we talk about achieving balance in our lives. We want to be steady, regular, diligent, consistent. We hate feeling like we're scrambling, dropping the ball, and never getting to what matters. So we think that balance is the answer. But what is that something that we're putting in a steady position so it doesn't fall? Is it our to-do list? Is it our various roles and responsibilities? Is it our attitude? Or is it C - all of the above? In seeking the first definition of balance, we often settle for the second, which basically means we make trade-offs and hope everything will come out even in the end. We didn't get to the laundry, but the schoolwork was done. We didn't mop, but we did get dinner on the table. Does the value of what was done make up for what doesn't?Sure, we want all of the things done so that we never have to make trade-offs like that, but it's just not going to happen in this life. It's an idealistic dream. We can continue honing our skills and getting better at what we do. We can expand our capacity and align our expectations. But we will always be making trade-offs. We just need to make sure those trade-offs are done in favor of the work with ultimate value. And, if we're going to keep anything in a steady position so it doesn't fall, let's make it our attitude, not our chores. Keeping an emotional even keel will keep the scales balanced no matter what it is that suffered in the day's survival mode skirmish. Having a balanced emotional life is the best kind of balanced life to live. Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.com

Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.comLearn how to organize your calendar! If you’re a busy mom and you want to be organized, you absolutely MUST have a working, accurate calendar. These 3 tips will have you using an organized calendar and bing more in control and aware of your time. Time management is an important skill for both the stay at home mom and the working mom.These organization tips will boost your productivity and enable better home management. Whether you use a wall calendar, google calendar, or a pocket planner – these 3 calendar organization tips will make the calendar of your choice work for you.There are three things your calendar must be if it is going to be organized – and the only way to keep it organized is to keep using it, keep updating it, and keep looking at it.#1. Organize your calendar by putting all appointments on it.If you’ve made a commitment to someone else to be somewhere or do something at a particular time, it should be on your calendar.Don’t assume you’ll remember or put any appointment – even sports practices or regular club meetings you think you’ll never forget. Put them all on the calendar. These are not clutter; they are reminders that your time is spoken for.What is calendar-clutter is non-obligations or anytime-commitments on the calendar. These should be on a to-do list, not on your calendar. Your calendar should be an at-a-glance chart of how much time you have available to you, in what chunks, each day.#2 Make your calendar easy to see.Your calendar will do you no good if you don’t look at it.You can use a large wall calendar, a portable planner with a calendar, or a digital calendar – but the key is that it is easy and convenient to look at it.And then we must look at it – multiple times a day.#3 Organize your calendar by color-coding itIf you do have a lot of people or a variety of commitments that make it hard to see at-a-glance what’s on your plate when you look at your calendar, you can use color-coding to make visual distinctions.Repeating, regular obligations can go in a lighter color so that the one-off appointments stand out more boldly.Commitments that simply involve you dropping off and picking up your kids can be in a particular color, separate from your own obligations.Your Calendar Is Your Most Important Organization ToolWhen you want to get your life organized, what’s the first step? If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you know the first step is always a brain dump.But then, once you have a brain dump that fills an entire notebook, where do you begin? What do you do with all that? Where does it go.There are 5 important bins you need before you can start sorting and processing that brain dump, but the one you should set up first and the one you should make your priority is your calendar.Your calendar is your most important organizational tool.“Good!” you might think, “I already have one!”But, do you?Are you using it? Is it 100% accurate?Do you look at it?Yeah, that’s the kicker, isn’t it? Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.com

Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.comA mind is a terrible thing to waste. Don't let useless thinking waste your mental energy, your time, or your brain power. Get your thoughts organized with these organized mind tips that will help you have an organized mindset and mom life. You need to know how to organize thoughts so you can problem solve and keep track of your thoughts and ideas, whether you're a sahm or a working mom. Every mom's mind is full and so we need mind organization for mom brains. Organize your thoughts for GOOD!Organization is not about our stuff, but about our minds.So you have thoughts - what happens with them? Our minds are a place where ideas swirl, information comes and goes, and what do we do with it all?Here are 3 things I do to manage the mess that is the thoughts inside my head. Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.com

Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.comPerfectionism kills productivity and progress. This strategy will help you beat perfectionism with action and improve incrementally. Perfection is a mindset. It is all in our heads. So we beat perfectionism by starting with our attitudes.We need a thinking strategy that will help us to talk back to perfectionism. I call this strategy iteration. Iteration means that we take a small steps forward, looking back to assess and learn after each step. Instead of holding out for the ideal or trying to jump to the final goal, iteration looks for progress and learns and grows and adapts as progress is made.Iteration isn’t just baby step by baby step progress, but also includes evaluation so that each step is informed and so that we remain flexible.One way to start iterating is to break down your year into chunks and do interval planning. Instead of making a large, ambitious goal and a long-term plan to get there, you make incremental goals, work on a smaller chunk of the project or outcome, then assess and choose the next right small goal between intervals. By continuing to move forward and remaining flexible, we can beat perfectionism and see momentum in our lives. Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.com

Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.comA weekly review is my secret weapon to stay organized. It’s a time reserved for big picture thinking, planning, and list making. More importantly, it’s a time to LOOK at those lists – and my calendar.A weekly review does not need to take an hour. You can take 15 minutes to get your stuff ready for the week ahead. A weekly review is the key, the linchpin, to all other plans, all other planners, all other systems. Without it, none of the rest will work.Someone who is organized has responsible self-control, is diligent, and likes it.A weekly review is the key for all other planning. Without it, your plans will not work. A weekly review is time set aside for looking at your lists. It’s crazy, but it turns out that your plans, lists, and calendar will not do you any good unless you look at it.We wrap our minds around our lives as they actually are right now so we can be prepared to handle what’s happening. We also view our upcoming obligations in light of the big picture. It helps us get focused on what needs to happen so we can enter our week with calm clarity. That’s how we stay organized. Take Sweep & Smile with us now! convivialcircle.com