Motherhood is no joke! Before I had kids I new parenting was going to be hard but you don’t actually realize how hard it actually is going to be until you have a child(ren).

I love my kids dearly and love watching them grow, learn and succeed. With our youngest she is learning the alphabet (she’s 3.5 yrs) and doing really great with that. Our oldest just finished her first year of school where she learned to read books, write stories and loved her science, math, music and gym classes.

Being a mom who works full time outside of the home takes me away from all the little things I was able to do on maternity leave (1 year in length with each girl). Laundry happens at night, dishes sometimes sit for a day and bigger cleaning happens a little less because… it’s just life. My husband is a Paramedic who works shift work so he sometimes has to sleep during the day.

This past weekend was a prime example of being what I thought was a good parent and then feeling like a terrible parent the next day. The plan was to take the girls to the Zoo then my boss’s house for a swim while my husband slept Saturday. I figured, no problem.

But first, I had to run 12k!

I got up early and headed out the door around 6:40ish and had a great run. I returned home to the girls getting dressed and just hanging out with Saï. I stretched, showered and started getting ready for the day. I made a picnic lunch, packed the girls up and off we went by 10 AM (my husband was asleep already).

It was extremely hot outside but that didn’t really bother us. The Zoo was fun. Hilary got on the horse for the first time which was really awesome. It’s one of Lilly’s favourite things to do at the Zoo is ride on the horse.  We had snack, some water and even bought some french fries (yeah, at the Zoo) to go with our lunch.

I was feeling good at this point. My legs felt good and energy was great. After lunch we drove over to my boss’s house and swam for an hour or so. It cooled us off in the heat of the day. We got home to spend a little time with Saï before he went to work. I made dinner and got the girls to bed, had a beer or two, then crashed around 9:30. It was a long day but a good day.

Summer beer……

Sunday’s plan was to go to the beach with some friends; swim and have a picnic. Great plan but it was a rough day with the girls. They wouldn’t listen, they wouldn’t clean up their mess. They were just giving me a hard time all while I was trying to keep them quiet so Saï could sleep after his second night shift.

We got to the beach late but had a good time. Hilary even went in the water all by herself – this is a big step for her!. Then it was time to head back home. By mid afternoon I crashed and took a much needed nap for an hour. The rest of the night wasn’t great – minor things going wrong that just added to the day’s negativity. I even threw in a soccer game later Sunday night.

Being a mom and runner can be easy peasy sometimes however, sometime it’s a struggle and sometimes it’s just plain old exhausting and HARD. The big thing is to keep going no matter your pace (which I’m not happy with lately) and get in whatever distance you can (I ran 3k last night just to run at 9:30 PM – crazy).

Life happens. Runs need to happen in order to be ready for race day. Sometimes you just have to know when you are doing too much between running and entertaining your kids.

Mother runners: what’s your biggest challenge getting in your runs?

How do you entertain your kids in between training runs and life?

What’s your favourite summer beer?