The Best $15 We Spend All Year

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we always go to the Christmas tree lot and pick out our tree. But for me, the season really starts when we hang our wreath on our front door. Every year since Katie was born, we've had a Boy Scout wreath covered in tiny silverplate ornament frames filled with photos of our family.


One year we spent the holiday at our condo in Sun Valley, and instead of putting up a Christmas tree we transported our picture wreath with us and hung it on our door. Just like home.

The kids always help me pick out the perfect wreath, we pick out the perfect ribbon to hang it from, we cover it in white lights, and we pick out the pictures we'll use this year. Then the best part: unpacking the frames and comparing this year's pictures to the previous year's. Each year flies by so quickly and that project is always like pushing the pause button for me. I look at each picture and remember the moment it was taken.

Then all season, no matter how busy or disorganized our days may seem, the simple act of walking through the front door reminds us of the all the happiness and joy we have in our lives. That $15 Boy Scout wreath is the best money we spend all year.

Has Anyone Seen My (fill in the blank)?

My husband and I had a revelation Friday night -- the entire Furber Family social calendar can no longer be housed in JP's head. We had scheduled all of the following:

A sleepover at our house with Jack's friend Conway
Andie's end of the season soccer party
Katie to attend a birthday party

JP had scheduled one of the events, I had scheduled the other, and the soccer party worked its way in somehow. All happened roughly at the same time, and required pickup, delivery or both.

We also have been tracking Jack's Outdoor Education permission slips all over the house -- they've traveled from the kitchen table, to the office, to Jack's room, to Jack's backpack and back to the kitchen table. Always when we need them, they're not in the first place we look, or the second, and usually not the third.

We need a new system that involves a calendar, a to do list for each kid, and a holding pen for all the papers that spend the week in limbo on our kitchen table (and roam around the house so they're not on the table when you need them).

We've decided to make a hard-working, no nonsense command central in our laundry room that includes:

A good old-fashioned Stendig calendar. This design was created in 1966 by Massimo Vignelli and is a classic. No pictures of cats or flowers to distract from our serious task of scheduling.


A chalkboard for each of the Furber family members so we can keep track of our stuff. We bought these magnetic chalkboard tiles from Pottery Barn a few years ago and now have have the perfect use for them.

They're extra useful because you can write notes on them with chalk, or you can stick things to them with magnets. First thing that's going up is Jack's Outdoor Education stuff.

Cannisters like these that stick to the chalkboards and hold things we always seem to need at the last minute: hair bands, barrettes, chapstick, lunch money.
A weather clock so we can keep track of the time and dress ourselves as we walk out the door.


Once our Command Central is all installed our household should run like a well-oiled machine. Or at least we'll be able to find our Outdoor Education permission forms when we need them.