What it takes to be Soccer Mom

Mom of 5 here with tons of volunteer hours at soccer. My three older kids have been or currently are soccer players. This year we may be able to add a forth soccer player for our soccer family. In my personal experience soccer is the best kid sport you can participate in. We play for AYSO in Pleasant Hill, CA. They have an everyone plays 75% of the game rule. This means to me that my children will have at least three hours of active exercise every week. With the TV and video games it can be challenging to get my children to exercise.

What having so many kids means I have the responsibility to encourage them to live healthy. Soccer brings the active life style and it boosts their self esteem. We have had some awesome volunteer coaches. They do fair job of making sure each child learns the game and has a chance to learn the game playing offence, defence, throwing in and taking kicks. My son Joey all though small for his age plays an tough guard with fierce protection of his team's goal but is not limited to that position. He was given a chance to play a position to make a goal. That is a huge motivator to keep playing.

Each team has two practices a week. They last an hour and a half to two hours. Games in our age groups last about 50 minutes. There are usually 2 games a week for half the season.The season usually starts in August and ends close to Thanksgiving. As Mom I can't do it alone. I work. My husband takes the kids to week day practice and I meet him there. I usually referee the weekend games. I referee up to four games on some weekends. The teams get points for my volunteered hours. This pays off for the team when playoffs come around. The teams with enough volunteer points can move on the the championship games if won. If not enough points a team that earned them and may not have the same winning stats may move on. This is the only part of the league I'm not happy with but understand since most parents want there kids to play but aren't as involved. I want my kids to have every chance they can so I'm out doing everything I can to make sure those doors don't get in there way.

I am proud to be a Soccer Mom.

Small talk

Today is our big soccer day. Three of my five kids are playing this year. Declan is my sidekick as I game hop. By 1:30 my buddy is overdue for a nap. I often look for distractions to keep him from going loopy then grumpy.

It just happens that someone near this soccer field has goats. Declan and I are talking about the sounds they make. Rrrr is not a goat sound but maa is.

One of our team dads is listening along with us. A conversation starts about how the new brush clearing trend here in the bay area is renting goats. He makes a comment on how there are a lot of was to clear brush but goats are the most environmental.

Most of you know I own chickens. My comment stirs up a chat that left me feeling good. I mention that I my chickens save me money by keeping the bugs out of my backyard.

A mom from the other team went on to ask me a million questions about having urban chickens. Everything from cost, to amount of poop. It became a team parent sideline talk. I think if nothing else got a few people to think about alternate ways to live with a beautiful yard besides pesticides and chemical based fertilizer.

I should have name dropped lovelyecochic.com for a potential sale. But I'm still in the consumer frame of mind. I carry some pretty cool alternate ways of lower cost of  yard improvement. No chicken coops yet.....