I Don't Know How She'll Do It

The balancing act of motherhood and a career, and being a wife, is something that I don't think I'll ever perfect but I love the challenge of it.  -- Kerri Walsh

First of all, let me just say how much I love Kerri Walsh.  She's athletic as all get out, she's tall (which I envy - OK, I envy the athletic part too), and she is a crazy mom.  At least as far as that goes, I can relate to that.

In my mind, part of my lifestyle must be to inspire my daughters.  Given their family history, athleticism does not run in the family, but diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity do.  My husband and I exercise to stave off these evils, but we had to make a conscious choice as adults when we were at a pretty unhealthy period in our lives.  We'd rather our girls just grow up thinking that physical activity and healthy eating are the norm -- not a choice.

So the older daughter is involved in soccer and pretty seriously - 4-5 nights/afternoons a week.  Plus during the spring and fall seasons, we travel for games.  The little one is involved in gymnastics and dance -- only 2 days a week, but she's still young.  They both take piano lessons and we want them to be able to do triathlons, so swimming lessons, etc.  Dealing with these activities alone is a balancing act (without adding my stuff in), and I have a lot more flexibility than many parents.

And then let's squeeze in my workouts.  I've done my swim workout while one of them is at piano lessons (both at the YMCA - very convenient); I've run in the neighborhoods around the dance studio when it was lighter out (and will be again soon) during dance; a long while ago, when soccer was still practiced at an elementary school, I'd run laps around the track.

I don't know if my efforts to fit all this around their schedule inspires them or not.  In fact, after taking them swimming yesterday and making them swim a couple laps, I'm pretty sure they are not thrilled with our insistence they do a triathlon this spring.  (They've done them before - the elder has done a couple, the younger did her first in August...they complain until they do them, but then they are pretty pleased with themselves, which is what matters.  Elder even took second place in her age group (AG) last year.)

But to wrap up this rant, to be honest, I'm inspired by them.  They get home from school, do their homework, cook themselves a mini-dinner (we eat late after practices so we can eat as a family), and go to their events.  They come home, we eat dinner, they shower & finish up anything left over, and maybe--just maybe-- have time to relax before bedtime.  And it starts all over again the next day.  That's what my life will be like when my training picks up later this spring.  I'll have to take a couple of lessons from their playbooks.