Simply Convivial: Organization & Mindset for Home & Homeschool

Season 8: Organize Homeschool Stuff We are doing something new starting this season and that is kicking things off with a FAQ episode. Joining me to do this is Virginia Lee Rogers. Virginia Lee and I have known each other online for years and she is now helping me with customer support so if you send an email to Simplified Organization or Simply Convivial you might just get a reply back from Virginia Lee and I want you to get to know her as well because she is a great resource. She is the homeschooling mom of five children and also an ENTJ. So, we have a very similar approach which will be fun to talk about. Mystie: And so, Virginia Lee, you want to tell us a little bit more about you and where people can find you online? Virginia Lee: Yes, I’d love to. I live in Colorado and I’ve been married for 17 years. We have five kids and we are a Charlotte Mason homeschooling family. And just sort of all different personalities in our crew but I guess probably the best way to describe us is just joyfully chaotic, sort of organized chaos but lots of joy. It’s not quiet at our house. And online, I don’t keep a blog, but I am on Instagram quite a bit. You can find me on — I run an Instagram bookshop called “The Jolly Reader” sort of a play on “The Jolly Rogers” since that’s our family’s name. And then I am also one of the nine curators for Charlotte Mason in Real Life. That’s on Instagram at CMIRL, we share posts from the community that show how different families are implementing Charlotte Mason’s philosophies but in a practical, day to day life. It’s a really joyful community filled with a lot of encouragement but also just really showing how you can take Charlotte Mason’s philosophy and live it out practically day by day. * Jolly Reader on Instagram * CharlotteMasonIRL on Instagram Mystie: That’s fun. So this season, season 8 of the Simply Convivial podcast is going to be about organizing homeschool stuff. So I thought we’d just have a brief conversation about how stuff gets organized in our homes. I think it’s easy when you say “organized” to start thinking of the magazines or the Pinterest where organized means everything looks really pretty and looking pretty is nice especially if you’re a personality who’s good at that but I’m not. Really, being organized is about having a home for things and knowing where things go. So everything has a place so that then you can put it away because it has a place. So we’re going to talk about some of the ways that we give stuff homes in our homeschools. Virginia Lee, what kind of homes do you have in your homeschool? Virginia Lee: Well, I guess one of my biggest things is that I’m not a big stuff person so if I have the stuff in my house it has to have a home and if I can’t find a home for it, it probably means I don’t need it. So I guess that’s one of the biggest ways I look at stuff. In fact my kids give me a hard time, “Don’t throw this away, we’re going to put this here so mom can’t throw it away!” But the other big thing of what I think of when I’m going to organize stuff is I need it to be practical. I’m not very good, like you said, I’m not one of those personalities where everything is pretty and maybe always pleasing to the eye but with the way our crew works is that it needs to be practical, it needs to be sturdy, and it needs to be in places where we can actually use it. Mystie: Right. I think that’s key. Because we have a basement so I could reserve a shelf in the basement and put things away on the shelf downstairs where they’d be out of the way but if they’re too much out of the way I’ll end up not actually using them. Virginia Lee: Yes, we are the same way. We do school in all different locations in our home and so we don’t use a s...

Season 8: Grocery Shopping Tips We’re doing something new this season. We’re going to be starting off each season with a FAQ episode about the season’s topic. This season is going to be about grocery shopping so I’m here with Virginia Lee Rogers who is helping me with customer support for Simplified Organization and we are going to talk about how to fit grocery shopping into our busy schedules. Transcript Mystie: So, hello, Virginia Lee. Virginia Lee: Hi, Mystie, thanks for having me. Mystie: Do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself? Virginia Lee: I’d love to. I live in Colorado and I am a homeschooling mom of five kiddos ages 12 and under and we are Charlotte Mason homeschoolers. To find me online I don’t keep a blog but I am on Instagram quite a bit, I run an Instagram book shop called “The Jolly Reader” sort of a play on words for “The Jolly Rogers” since Rogers is our last name and I’m also one of the nine ladies who curate Charlotte Mason In Real Life and that’s on Instagram at CMIRL, so that’s sort of a community where show what it looks like to take Charlotte Mason’s philosophies and live those out practically day by day. * Jolly Reader on Instagram * CharlotteMasonIRL on Instagram Mystie: Awesome. So, both of us are homeschooling and we have five kids and it turns out that these people need to eat. That means we need to go to the grocery store. Virginia Lee: Yes, yes, yes. Mystie: So I think one of the things that really makes a difference in the grocery store routine and getting it in there is how close they are because how much commuting time there is really makes a big difference in where it can fit in. Virginia Lee: Yes, most definitely. And especially, we live in Colorado so the weather six months out of the year is not always optimal. So that is a big thing to think of if you’re going to have to drive any sort of distance. Mystie: So how is the town where you are? Are the discount grocers close or do you … ? Virginia Lee: We have a bulk store in our town and we have a couple of chain grocery stores as well and the chain grocery stores that we have are definitely not discount stores they’re a little more expensive but they’re not bad if you want to find something specific and they always tend to have better produce, of course. But I am not one of those people who likes to shop at four or five different places… Mystie: No. Virginia Lee: … so I’d rather plan my menus around what I can get from the most convenient place to shop and I know some moms don’t mind at all, they enjoy it and they’ll go to a few different spots to get their groceries, but I’m just not really in that season of life right now. Mystie: Yeah. I used to but I think that was maybe it was baby number three where I stopped. Virginia Lee: Yes, yes. We’ve done grocery shopping a couple of different ways and I think you’re right it really does depend do you have a baby, do you have older kids going with you, you know, that kind of thing. For awhile we used to, at the bulk store that we have, you can put in online orders so you can just get online, choose every single thing you want, and place the order, and you do have to be prepared because you can’t do it the day you want to pick it up, I mean, you have to do it at least the day before, they need a day to get it and process it but what we used to do is I would stick that order in on Saturday because dad was home and so that allowed me a chunk of time to get online and have complete thoughts without interruptions, get that put in, and then we’d go to church on Sunday and then when church was out the bulk store was sort of near our church so we’d just go as a whole family over there,

Season 7: Mom As Atmosphere We recite mottos during our Morning Time. I think the first place I encountered the idea was when listening to ACCS teacher training audio (back before there were CiRCE conferences or podcasts). The elementary classes of Logos School, at least back in the old days, had mottos they recited daily that then the teacher could call to mind when they were relevant. As a family, we already had a few little sayings – ways to keep a frequent command familiar, memorable, and pithy. Over the years I’ve collected mottos, adding to and subtracting from our repertoire, but finally settling down on a select few for this year. This year, these mottos are behind the daily tab of our binder, and most days we go over them quickly. We alternate this selection with a selection of pithy Shakespearean proverbs each term. These mottos are not only reminders for the kids. They are reminders for myself, as well. Read the original post: Morning Time Mottos for Moms & Kids Listen: Recommended Reading: Simple Sanity Saver: Repent. Rejoice. Repeat. To learn and grow ourselves, we must repeat our lessons. Knowing is not the same as doing, isn’t that the truth? Learning is not simply knowing. It is acting in accordance to what we know. Every day. So, learning is not a once-and-done thing. It’s daily bringing our actions in line with our knowledge. Yes, to learn and grow we have to expand our knowledge, but we also have to grow our capacity for living out the knowledge we have. Application – continual, daily application – is a part of learning. So when you have to do the dishes again, teach a math lesson again, put on a smile again, repent again, rejoice again, sweep the floor again, don’t pine for time to read more, thinking that’s real learning. It is, but so is the living it out. So embrace the daily repetitions, the daily opportunities to put into practice what we know. Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!

Season 7: Habits We are often encouraged to set SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. It sounds great, and those goals do have a place. But when much of our lives is about developing people (ourselves and our children), we can’t put ourselves or others into such neat little boxes. We must treat people as people instead of as projects. So for many of our hopes for the future, we’d do better to focus on our processes – what we do today and tomorrow and the next day – rather than on reaching a particular outcome. Aim for the habits and the actions, not the outcome. Read the original post here: Humming Home Habits: Aim Recommended Reading

Season 7: Mom As Atmosphere In the first episode of The Scholé Sisters Podcast we talk about how levity – lightheartedness, humor, cheerfulness – is a burnout prevention method. When we sink into seriousness, into get-it-all-done mode, into self-importance, we’re bound to be pulled down, lose our joy, and want to give up. To prevent burnout and also to recover from it, we need to shed our anxieties and pride – and we do that through laughter. Laughter comes from a humble heart, a heart not weighed down with burdens or full of itself. Read the original post: The Secret to Sanity at Home Listen: Recommended Reading: Simple Sanity Saver: Repent. Rejoice. Repeat. To teach our children, we must repeat ourselves. Did you catch that these three words are not only alliterative. They don’t just all begin with R, they all begin with re. They are all words that require repetition, doing again, over and over. Repenting and rejoicing are not once-and-done projects or tasks. They are to characterize all our lives, every day. If you find you have to repent again, even though you did yesterday, don’t get discouraged and disheartened, just do it. Then comes the ability to rejoice in God’s grace, not our own strength. If you find you have to tell your children the same thing again today that you did yesterday, don’t despair. Just repeat and remember to rejoice because God’s giving you a chance to exercise His patience, kindness, and steadfastness. Repetition is built into life. Don’t fight it. Just do it. Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!

Season 7: Habits What does being productive even mean? It’s not simply getting more done, but getting the right things done, done well, and done cheerfully. Whether or not you want to do more in 2016, I bet you want to do what you do better – whether that means more consistently, more joyfully, or more skillfully. Me, too. Just because I write about productivity and organization doesn’t mean I have it all together. It just means I’m always paying attention and trying to improve. I write what I need to hear myself as much as what I’ve learned and what I do. If we can hone in on these practices, we will become more effective in and more satisfied with our work. Mentioned in this episode: Watch the free Work the Plan video on making vocation goals Read the original post here: 5 Habits for a Productive Year Recommended Reading

Season 7: Mom As Atmosphere You’ve met her. Maybe you’ve been her. Maybe you are her. Some homeschool moms might scare you. Some homeschool moms scare their children. But I think we’ve all experienced another kind of scary homeschool mom: the one who scares herself. Are you scary? Who do you scare? Read the original post: The Scary Homeschool Mom Listen: Recommended Reading: Simple Sanity Saver: Repent. Rejoice. Repeat. To learn and grow ourselves, we must rejoice. Learning and growing is stifled by pride, anger, and bitterness. Rejoicing is not only the opposite of these vices, it is also the antidote. 
When we’re on our guard, resentful, tight-fisted, angry, proud, our minds and hearts close up and harden. When we rejoice, our minds and hearts are open, receptive, and soft. Of course, when we have closed ourselves off, we often cannot do the work of changing our heart. But God can and will if we ask and submit, giving up our bad attitudes for His good ones. Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!

Season 7: Habits Rather than grandiose goals for a new year, we should be focusing on small habits that we can build upon. These new year habits continue giving, because they become automatic. So we can gain their benefit without expending much energy to do so. A habit is an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. Read the original post here: Start New Year Well: Keystone Habits Recommended Reading

Season 7: Mom As Atmosphere Sometimes it’s weather, sometimes it’s illness, sometimes it’s simply fatigue. If you’ve been homeschooling for awhile, you’re probably familiar with the feeling: homeschool morning blah. It’s normal; it’s natural; it’s bound to happen. But it’s also one of a homeschool mom’s most insidious enemies. No, I’m not exaggerating. Unless we learn how to overcoming homeschool morning blah, we will not have consistency and we will not be modeling the cheerful grit we want our students to have. Read the original post: My Secret Weapon for Beating a Bad Attitude in our Homeschool Listen: Recommended Reading: Simple Sanity Saver: Repent. Rejoice. Repeat. To teach our children, we must rejoice. Our tone and our mood as mothers and teachers matters immensely. Is this life of learning, this life of sanctification a good life or a bore? Is it a good life or a torture? 

Our demeanors teach our children about life. The good life isn’t the easy life. We shouldn’t think so and we don’t want our children to think so. How will they recognize the good life? By smiles, laughter, enjoyment, joy. If we do not have joy, we will not teach effectively the most important lessons. If we do not have joy, God can and will supply it when we ask – it is a fruit of the Spirit. It’s not something we have to gin up – it’s something that comes when we’re willing to forsake our sins, set aside our own agendas, and receive God’s grace, minute by minute. Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!

Season 7: Habits Why make my bed? It is not so much the made bed itself that is the goal, but the “easy win” factor. By making my bed in the morning I set the tone for the day. It is a victory of willpower (because I’m pathetic and require willpower to make my bed) that doesn’t tax my willpower much (not, like, breaking a habit of eating chocolate in the evening – for a purely theoretical example). Walking in upon a room with a made bed is a reminder throughout the day that I am in charge, I am making progress, I am becoming a more orderly person. Read the original post here: January Habit: Making My Bed Recommended Reading

Season 7: Mom As Atmosphere Is happiness an emotion reserved for those who have an easy life? Right now I have a child who thinks happiness is a life without math fact drill pages. And, he’s onto something that misery is dragging one’s feet and taking three hours to do what should take one three minutes. However, cause and effect might be different than his perception. The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but liking what one has to do. — J.M. Barrie Read the original post: Choosing Conviviality or Perpetuating a Pity Party? Listen: Recommended Reading: Simple Sanity Saver: Repent. Rejoice. Repeat. To learn and grow ourselves, we must repent. George Grant has said that education is repentance. That’s because before we can learn, we must admit that we don’t know, that we need something we don’t have, that we’re inadequate. Learning requires humility, a willingness to be wrong, an openness to truth, goodness, and beauty, even if it becomes uncomfortable to our pride. True learning should not make us proud, boastful, or arrogant. Learning should put us in the posture of wonder and curiosity and humility. If it doesn’t, we can repent. We can ask God to change our hearts and help us take our eyes off ourselves so we can better see and know Him and His Word and His world. Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!

Organization podcast: Incremental change is the best approach, and keystone habits are the increments that have the biggest impact.

Convivial must describe our life as a whole, and learning, living, and loving must be intertwined.

When we focus on those little things we do daily, we will build gradual, incremental change that will provide lasting momentum and real progress.

Season 6: Homeschool Planning Some homeschool moms – maybe those with school-teacher backgrounds – have elaborate homeschool lesson plans – full sheets of papers full of ideas, notes, references, activities, and objectives. Many homeschool moms have no lesson plans at all. I have never been in that first category, but more often find myself in the latter. Even though I love planning, lesson plans seemed more like a waste of time than anything else. The truth is that a plan does make a thing more likely to happen. Read the original post: How to lesson plan so you’re never behind Listen: Recommended: Clever Curriculum Connection Now, Latin has been hit or miss, quite honestly, in our average days. Too often Latin is what gets bumped when life goes awry. With a DVD and workbook, it would be easy to have my boys simply go through the motions of progress of Latin on their own: They can watch the video, I can assign workbook pages, and that could be all. But that is really just a waste of everyone’s time. No language is going to be learned that way. It’s all going to go in one ear and out the other and never stick. So, rather than simply move on through the curriculum so we can stay on schedule and cover a book a year, we have taken the next step as we can and tried to master the lesson before moving on. This means a slower pace, especially since Latin might only happen twice a week rather than every day. But I’m ok with slow progress, especially if not finishing a book a year means we’ve actually gained the ground we’re covering. So it has taken us about two years per level in Latin for Children , which is written as a year-long curriculum. That’s ok. Some Latin is better than none. And learned Latin is better than skimmed Latin. I’ve been less apt to ditch the Latin when feeling the squeeze this year, choosing to prioritize it over other things. Also, I am sleeping through the night and don’t have a baby – that means fewer lessons get skipped than used to be. Perhaps when my third and fourth child start Latin we will actually be able to do a level a year. Perhaps they will teach it to their children and so actually get to the point of reading Latin. Perhaps my grandchildren will be able to teach my great-grandchildren Latin through speaking it and actually achieve the immersion approach. Taking the long view helps ease the pressure of “finishing up.” This is a generational journey, not simply a school-year journey. I am planting seeds and do not know what fruit will be reaped 10, 20, 30 years from now. I am content to be planting little seeds and watering them as best I can, even while wishing I were a harvester of ripe crops – that’s not my place in the story. [thrive_2step id=’16067′][/thrive_2step] Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!