It’s true: Sunday can be one of the hardest days of the week for moms. On a day called a day of rest, we’re supposed to get everyone out the door, on time in the morning, looking spiffy and feeling happy. Particularly for homeschool moms who don’t do that any day of the week but…
As important as it is to start the day with prayer and Scripture, I do my best to avoid calling such time “devotions.” Maybe it’s just a weird personal tick, but to me, “devotions” sounds like achieving an atmosphere and aesthetic more than doing the needful. Devotions conjures pictures of quiet reading spaces with candles…
This is an excerpt from the introduction to my new book, Simplified Organization: Learn to Love What Must Be Done, now available on Amazon! I am living the life I always wanted. I grew up the oldest of seven, homeschooled, reading Anne of Green Gables and heaps of sappy Christian romance novels. I grew up…
We look around and see the work to be done. It’s too much for us to do with the time we have available. We’ve all been there. How do we respond? Sometimes we might sigh and get on with what we can do, sad it’s not more. Sometimes we might decide to just put it…
Moms are leaders of their children, giving vitality to the nervous system of the family. I remember over a decade ago, I had joined a 24-hour fitness club so that I would feel obligated to exercise. One early morning I was dutifully on the treadmill and some news commentary show was on all the big…
Time management is hard. Books and YouTube videos abound with all manner of tips, tricks, and systems. You can make an Ideal Week with Michael Hyatt, time block with Cal Newport, or manage your calendar with David Allen. Maybe you even landed here at Simply Convivial because you came across my articles or videos on…
I just began my 15th year of homeschooling. I only have a 15-year-old, a 13-year-old, and a 10-year-old left at home, and every one of them is digging into good books I want to read with them. Sure, almost all those books are repeats for me, but as C.S. Lewis points out in Experiment in…
When live wires connect, electricity flows. When roots connect to moist soil, nutrients are sent up so the plant can grow. When magnets connect, they can hold up an astonishing amount of weight. What happens when ideas connect in the mind? Learning. Making connections is learning Education is about understanding relations, the connectedness of things. Seeing…
I always go into summer thinking that I’ll use the time to clean and organize the whole house, make a perfect plan for the next school year – which will solve all our logistics issues and make it so much better – and probably lose ten pounds while I’m at it. But it turns out…
All classical educators, since before Plato and extending all the way through the centuries until the progressive movement began dismantling education, have been obsessed with teaching virtue. If their educational program didn’t produce virtuous men and women, it was effort spent in vain. This is why Plato railed against the Sophists – their goal was…