Tired, feeling like a failure, not sure what to do but there are a million things you should have done yesterday – I hear it every day from ladies joining Convivial Circle. They are on the brink or past the brink of burnout. I’ve been there, too. I know what it feels like to be drowning in undone housework. I know what it feels like to be lost, listless, restless, apathetic at home. While a good method for tackling the clutter and cleaning can help, what I needed and what I find other ladies also need first is an attitude correction. The work becomes so much more manageable and lighter when we ..read more

Two and a half years ago we moved sold our house of twelve years, the one I thought we’d be in for at least another ten, if not twenty or thirty years. We moved across state lines, from Washington to Idaho, like many did post-2020. We purchased land before we moved, had house plans in development, and moved into a small but decent duplex rental. This duplex is half the size of the house we sold, but the house we’re building will be three times the size of this duplex – so we have to live minimally for a season, with much packed in storage for some undisclosed future date. Living in a rental h ..read more

Yes, moms should read novels. Story grip might be a strong temptation, but it’s worth the struggle. I’ve written before about how reading novels changed my homemaking by waking me up to some of my bad attitudes about housework back when my third child was an infant. The funny thing about this experience was that I did not go into those novels thinking I’d get insights that directly applied to my current life. I was reading the novels to rest, to pass a quiet evening, to occupy my mind while painting the kitchen, to have something in hand while nursing. I was also reading books to solve my cur ..read more

Getting a family dinner on the table can feel relentless. Whether we serve up a success or a flop, the next meal will follow fast on its heels. As mothers, one great temptation is to grow weary in doing good. We do so much of the same work, day in and day out, that it’s easy to lose the plot, to lose ourselves, to lose a desire to do…anything. Family dinner weariness God knows our temptations and provides mercy right where we need it. He reminds us, “Do not grow weary in doing good, for in due time you will reap if you do not give up.” There will come a time for reaping, even if everything ar ..read more

I’ve written before about how helpful mottos can be to our attitude about our work and life. Yes, mottos are great parenting tools, but they work for parenting ourselves as well. That’s why choosing and repeating mottos is a part of what we do regularly inside Convivial Circle. There are portions of the courses that guide us in choosing and copying mottos for different areas of our life, but also inside our small group accountability posts each week, we’re supposed to share not only our top 3 tasks for the week, but also our focus or motto for the week. A few weeks ago with my stand-up post ..read more

We don’t want to be the nagging, harping mom. But, it happens. What other options are there when the kids won’t keep their stuff picked up? We’re working so hard for a more clean and orderly home, yet every time we look around, we feel sabotaged. No one else seems to notice or care. We’re the only ones cleaning up and everyone else is just generating more work for us without pitching in. How do we get the kids to do their chores and pick up their stuff? What chore system will make it so they finally help out instead of just undo? What if we’re asking the wrong questions and looking at the who ..read more

Or, avoiding the boom and bust cycle of housework. How many times have you scoured the internet, browsed Pinterest, binged YouTube, looking for the next best cleaning routine that will actually work for you and your house? Now that I’m in my 40s and not 20s, I know the important question to ask here: Have you spent as much working any of those routines as researching them? Ouch. I know. I’ve been there, done that and am simply now adding my older-mom voice to the chorus: Almost any routine will work if you do. However, there’s a huge temptation we absolutely must resist. It is a plague for th ..read more

Or, working with what you’ve got – It’s hard to keep track of how fast life, seasons, and stages pass when you’re managing a large family, homeschooling, and ministry. Lindsey runs the Reformed Faith and Family website and podcast alongside her husband Caleb. Together they have seven children ranging in ages from three to fifteen years old. Caleb is a bi-vocational pastor, and Lindsey is a long-time homeschooling mom who enjoys reading to her children, dabbling in homestead hobbies, and being a doula for friends when she gets the chance. Their work on Reformed Faith and Family was born out of ..read more

Or, what we really want out of social media Although Americans want to believe it, and manipulate to contrive it, there actually is no such thing as “too big to fail.” History shows us rather the opposite. At a certain point, human entities and institutions can become too big not to fail.  Human institutions with Babel-like aspirations are doomed to bring more confusion, not more unity, to human relationships.  Even were there not idolatry and overweening pride involved, the nature of technology and innovation is to become obsolete as capabilities increase and as users adopt and ada ..read more

Or, being a creative homemaker It’s so easy to feel worn down and exhausted by life, mothering, and all the things – especially when you have six kids like Lexy Sauvé.  Lexy has learned a surprising thing, though – it’s not cutting back that helps her enjoy her life; it’s adding hobbies and creativity to her already-full life that adds joy and satisfaction. How is that possible? That’s what we chat about in this interview. Lexy is happily married to her high school sweetheart. They have six children together and live in Northern Utah. Lexy co-hosts Bright Hearth with her husband. Find Le ..read more