Keeping Track of Your Balls

One would think that with only two sports (soccer and basketball) played by the Furber kids, it would be easy to keep track of the sports equipment. It's not. I see pretty pictures like this and can't relate at all.

I just stare longingly and think "I want that." But after a weekend with five soccer games, one basketball tryout, a few tears from athletes looking for their socks, shin guards, the right color jersey, etc. and one emergency trip to Safeway for stretchy headbands, we're all ready to cope.

My Dad is the subject matter expert on organization in our family, but he's not much of an athlete (although he does have an interest in this topic: we are storing his basketball shorts and shoes in our messy sports closet so he can play with Jack when he visits). So we turned to Real Simple magazine, our second richest source of information, and found some good advice for the mudroom, closet and garage in an article entitled

Organizing Your Sports Equipment

: Storage solutions for your space―whether it's cramped, cavernous, or in between.

So far we've read the article and we're feeling optimistic, but we have a few questions:

• What if your children only play sports with equipment that rolls away when you put it in its designated spot?
• Color coding is a very nice idea, but what if all the clothing for both daughters is all exactly the same color?
• What if you come home from a soccer game with a ball labeled "Ashley" and you don't have a child named Ashley?
• What if you only have about 2 1/2 minutes between games -- is it OK to fling your equipment in all directions while changing, in the hopes that you can find it all later?

Mercifully, next weekend is Labor Day, so no games or practices. That will give us plenty of time to forget how stressed we were this weekend and put off organizing for another season.

Add It To The List

The beginning of this school year is especially intimidating. Not because the school year with three kids requires extreme organization. I'm lucky to be married to the world's most organized man (see post Behind Every Organized Woman Is a Man Who Remembers to Buy the Paper Towels), so we manage to get most things done with an acceptable level of execution.

This school year is coming too soon because:

• Our summer has been a great one, filled with happy memories, and I'm not ready for it to end.
• We've been enjoying our summer right up until the bitter end, so we're not entirely ready.
• Katie starts soccer this year, so all three kids will be involved in sports or other activities.
• This year will be Andie's sophomore year in high school, and puts her one year closer to graduating and moving out of our house.

Ready or not, though, school starts tomorrow. I'm determined to get as much fun and happiness as possible out of each year, so each weekend of the school year I make a list of things to accomplish. I'm not as focused as JP, so my list often is sprinkled with optional items to keep everyone motivated throughout the weekend. The first list of the year has been compiled and reads as follows:

1. Write Suburban Zen post
2. Clean house
3. Laundry
4. Hike Las Trampas
5. Pedicure with Katie
6. Prep dry cleaning for Monday
7. Change date on Rent tickets
8. Clean, wash and gas car
9. Shop for school clothes with Andie
10. Ice cream at The Dairy

Whenever one of the kids wants to do something fun, I say "add it to the list." By the end of the weekend, our list is filled with a funny combination of work and play, and most things are crossed off.

#1 -- check. #2 -- yuck. But if I'm ever going to get to #10...