February is nearly over. How are those new year goals going? Have you been consistent with your goals? After the new year high has worn thin, after the gray and cold has taken its toll, we need to get honest about what it takes to stay consistent with our goals. It is not unusual to…
We’re coming up on December, and it will seem inevitable: We must examine how the year went, how we’ve done, how far we’ve come. Most of us will be disappointed. I know I will be. I will see my list of goals, of things I had wanted to do in 2019, and they will not…
It was about 5 years ago now that I deleted my old blog and started over from scratch, choosing the name Convivial Home for my new effort. A real estate agent promptly offered me a large sum for that domain, so I sold it and switched my name to Simply Convivial. I did not want…
Meaningful goals that align with our responsibilities rather than our wishful thinking are worth the time it takes to make them, review them, and work toward them. It’s a common scenario, at least for me. I am in a reflective mood, thinking about all the ways I’m a slacker, all the ways I’d like to…
The backstory I was a child who hated making my bed and got away with leaving it undone as often as I could manage. I hated pointless work, and what is more pointless than making a bed you’re just going to get in and mess up again at the end of the day? Yes, this…
Homeschooling is a game that has to be played with the long view. When a day goes well, it’s tempting to rejoice in the assumption that we obviously got everything right and finally have a plan that works. Now, we think, every day will now go swimmingly, because clearly our good plan is in place….
All my writing time and energy has been spent in my upcoming video training: Work the Plan. So, I decided to both roll with that and yet not neglect posting by simply sharing some of that writing here with you as a sort of preview. The following is about half of the script I wrote…
If you’re like me, you try – at least occasionally – to become better, more effective, more competent in your roles and responsibilities at home. And then after a period of trying, you peter out because it turns out it’s quite exhausting to grow and change and fight entropy and bad habits. We have to become…
Fortiter fideliter forsan feliciter, or Repentance part of the Education Is for Life series This series is rather ill-timed and ill-spaced. Honestly, these posts have actually required research of me, and a lot of thinking. So they have taken longer to write and hence are spread out over months rather than running for a week…
Multum non Multa, or Simplicity Part of the Education Is for Life Series It is true that education is a life, and it is true that Life is an education, but it is also true that education is for life. If this classical education we are seeking for our children is meant to prepare them…