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mommag.com
11
Melissa Lyon
Gets real!
Cover MOM
As a mother of four active kids, a
fitness and soccer coach and a
competitive indoor soccer player
herself, Cover MOM Melissa
Lyon gives new meaning to the
term “soccer mom.” What keeps
her family strong? A lot of love
and forgiveness.
Family comes first.
All families are unique. Tell us
about yours.
We are a crazy family of six.We lived in Brazil
for four years, learned Portuguese and have
traveled all over South America.We run
around like crazy with all of our sports, jobs
and hobbies.We love the lake, boating,
fishing and hanging out.We try to have
dinners together, laugh together, pray and be
silly. On top of our crazy, we have two dogs
that came fromBrazil, a turtle and a guinea
pig. You can catchmost of us playing soccer
or watching it during our free time.
Tell us about one of your proudest
mommoments.
One of my proudest mom moments is
probably when my oldest daughter
graduated from high school and registered
for college at Western Oregon University.
It was hard for my kids to get through
school because of the travelling we did
while they were in elementary and middle
school; so seeing her graduate was an
accomplishment. She finished with a very
high GPA and that made me proud.
Now tell us about one of your most
humbling mommoments.
It is so hard to say at this moment because
I’m still super humbled and frustrated,
but that’s life. We aren’t perfect humans!
I thought I could be a“perfect parent,”but
then life takes a turn and you realize that
was never possible. Two days before our
photo shoot for this magazine, my daughter
shocked my husband and I and announced
that she was pregnant. It was gut-
wrenching; we were speechless. I wanted to
strangle her. We’ve had some very hard
conversations with everyone involved,
trying to humble ourselves and forgive. We
must move past people’s judgments and
plan for her future with a child and a
husband. We are all learning from this, but,
yes, it’s humbling to say the least.
We’re all moms so we know that no one
is perfect all of the time or even some of
the time. Tell us about your most recent
“Mother of the Year”moment. You know,
like forgetting to pick the kids of up
from school.
Every day my youngest goes to school. I’ve
gotten to the point where I really don’t care
what she has on. She has been the hardest
to dress. Some days when I’ve picked her
up from school, I forget how she looked
when she left the house and think, “Who
let that homeless kid leave the house? Oh,
yah, me!” Hey, she’s happy so I’m happy.
You hear your mother’s voice when you
say to your kids “...”
My mom would always nag us to clean!
She would run around the house frantically
screaming at us. Sometimes I catch myself
doing that.
What do you wish for your children?
I’d hope that they love God, care for others
and know happiness.
No one works harder
than mom.
We know that being a mom is a full-time
job. Tell us about your work or
volunteerism outside of the home.
I work for Orangetheory Fitness in Corvallis
and Eugene as a fitness coach. Between
the two, I work full time and am in the
process of starting to coach soccer at
Santiam Christian School. I’ve worked with
Corvallis Soccer Club for a few years and
sometimes volunteer with them.
How do you balance (or not)
motherhood, activities, work,
volunteering, household
responsibilities and life in general?
It’s hard. I feel like that’s where most of my
frustration and fighting with my spouse
and children come from. It’s hard for me to
not be in all places at once. I try to give
100% wherever I am, but I know some
areas of my life are not there. It literally
takes a village to raise kids and have a
clean house! We have to work together. My
kids cook sometimes, do laundry, yard
work, drive other kids to practices. We have
to be team players for a peaceful
household, otherwise all hell breaks loose.
How did you get involved in fitness
and coaching?
When we lived in Brazil, I started working
out again after having my fourth child and
realized how much I loved it and loved
helping others. It started a passion in me to
study and learn as much as I could to help
myself and others become stronger,
healthier individuals.
Coaching soccer has been a part of my life
for a while, but having a coaching license
and getting paid to do it is a new thing for
me. My daughter Juliah had a soccer coach
named JC Callahan who encouraged me to
pursue my license and felt that there
needed to be more women coaches out
there. He told me about the program and
then I dove in.
What have you learned professionally
that has helped you as a mom?What
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