Inspired

I know you've heard it...that's so inspiring!! People say it all the time, maybe even you. It's interesting to me though...something that is inspiring to a certain person or maybe a group of people. People who have similar desires or interests usually share the same results. SO here's my question...what inspires you?? What helps you take that next step to being a more patient mommy, a creative choreographer, a blessing to those around you, a better person?
For me, it comes in three main forms.
1) This is creative Hiliarie speaking....Seeing a dance performed with so much passion you realize that the dancers' soul is left on the stage after their bodies exit. Watching true emotion being poured out in my favorite art form. This makes me want to choreograph the best and most meaning ful dances. It makes me want to push myself and my dancers to never settle for okay. To strive to be great. To strive to touch lives through our movement. There are dance performances I've seen in my life that have truly changed me. My goal is to one day have someone tell me that their life is better for seeing a dance I choreographed and/or danced. The dream of changing a life through dance inspires me.
2) This is Mommy Hiliarie speaking....Spending time with my fellow Mommy friends. I love to see how alike I am to my friends and also how different we all are. Some moms are the ones with the new recipe and can whip up a 3 course meal with her eyes closed. Some moms are the crafty ones who can take a q-tip, bobby pins and paper clips and create an award-winning science fair project. Some moms ooze style--they throw on a tank with a pair of jeans, a few accessories and they're out the door looking like a million bucks. Some moms are the silly and crazy ones always playing in the floor and making any child within a ten foot radius laugh! Some moms are the soft place their kids can fall into, knowing they will be there to hold them when this life gets tough. I have to say I was so very very blessed to have a mother who falls into three of these categories. That's pretty amazing for a mother! She is a great and creative cook, I always had great school projects and she still is my shoulder to cry on when the day is going all wrong. I am inspired to be a better mother by the amazing mommies around me and especially by my own mother.
3) This is Servent Hiliarie speaking...by the precious quiet times spent with my Father in heaven. I love how a verse can literally jump off the page and apply directly to my life. It can make the difference in how I approach so many different facets of my life AND when it was written God knew it would affect me this way, this day!! I am loving soaking up God's word right now. Sometimes (and let's be honest we all probably do) I find it hard to read my bible everyday. The busyness overwhelms me and the NIV starts to collect some dust. BUT the great thing is that whenever I may choose to dust it off and open to my bookmark, the words are still there waiting to fill my day with hope and joy. And ya know what...God's still there too. He never leaves us. He patiently waits for us to give him some attention. Those quiet moments when I feel his presence and I realize, once again, I can take on the world...those moments inspire me to be the best daughter of The King I can be.
What inspires you?? How do you strive to be better each day? Have you ever thought about it before? Maybe not...maybe you should. Maybe we should all try to better ourselves on a daily basis. Just think, if everyone was working to make improvements on their insides, we might just see a big improvement on the outside....and on the generations to come.

saturdays in the fall

When the Covingtons return from the beach and have washed all the sand out of the clothes, shoes and wherever else it may be hiding, the focus immediately turns to how many days we have until college football begins. Matt starts a countdown on the laptop to LSU's kickoff and we begin to pull out the jerseys and take inventory of game day attire! We love getting up on saturday mornings and turning on GameDay. We boo at bad picks and cheer for anything positive for LSU :) It's a time we get to sit around as a family and share our love for football. I know this may seem foreign to some women because many of my friends can take the game or leave it. And then there is my mom, who is so sick of hearing about football by October she can't see straight!! I don't know where I got it, but I can't get enough of it!
One monumental moment in my life is directly linked to college football. One day after Matt and I were engaged I asked him "When did you know you loved me?" He thought for a minute and said "When we were at the USC-Tennessee game and UT was on a long run play. I was so frustrated and about to yell out about USC's lack of tackling and you stood up and yelled WRAP HIM UP!! I knew right then I loved you!" Hahaha!! This cracks me up because I had no idea what I was doing that chilly day in October!! I was getting my future husband to fall in love with me! I thought I was just being an outraged fan!! I know God hand picked Matt and I for each other because he loves sports so much and they are so integral in his everyday life that he needed someone to share in that love. I read the 5 Love Languages book but I tell ya, he forgot one...speaking the love language of sports! I am so blessed to be able to share in the games that make my husband's world go round. It's a love of sports that makes me love my husband more, AND he, in return, can love the fact that I share this world with him. I have a shirt that says "Real women ,watch football, the rest of yall just stay in the kitchen" I honestly didn't understand the shirt entirely until I wore it in front of my mom and she was highly offended by it...well not really but she played it up pretty big to give me a hard time! What can I say, I sometimes miss the entire point....blonde!
So I write this as we sit side by side on the couch, watching GameDay, waiting for a 3:30 kickoff for LSU and Auburn. Geaux Tigers!!! We're #1 right now and hoping to be playing for a National Championship in January...we'll see! That's one thing about the game of football...it's so unpredictable. Hmm kinda like marriage and mommyhood! Well, I'm off to boil peanuts and await the Corso picks of the week!!! Have a happy football day...may all your teams bring home a win!!!

does anybody really know what's going on...

Have you ever noticed how many times a mom asks a fellow mom for their opinion on a matter? Bedtimes, potty training, ditching the paci, weird rashes, temper tantrums...seriously I could go on for another paragraph!! But the funny thing that occurred to me yesterday was this: "do any of us really know what's going on?" Aren't we all just trying to do our best and what jives best with our kids? I read a facebook message from a friend with about 8 moms' opinions attatched to it about her trouble with bedtime. Well she got about 8 different ways to go about bedtime! I think she must be more stressed now because which one does she choose?!! I have felt like that so many times in my motherhood, do I listen to my mother? Do I listen to my childhood friend? Do I listen to the mom book I just read? Do I listen to my gut?!
We have such a large library of resources these days. We can get whatever we need at our fingertips through the internet. We can even diagnose our own children's sicknesses on WebMD! Who needs a pediatrician?? I just wonder if we have too many voices in our heads now. I find myself wanting to jump on facebook and ask advice or write stuff about my kids. I sometimes forget to go to God first. To pray and ask him what to do! Now don't get me wrong, I'm so glad we have the resources that we do! I just guess I sat there and giggled....does anybody really know what's going on?!
Now if you're looking for great insight into being a mom and amazing answers to life's hard questions you may want to find another blog to follow, but if you're looking to have a few laughs, celebrate our children and try to dance through motherhood with me then you're in the right spot! I just hope to bring some joy and cheer into some fellow moms' lives. I feel like so many times the Mommies get the joy sucked out of their day. We don't get soup and medicine brought to us in bed when we have the flu. We witness every temper tantrum and whining request. We clean up the throw up from the kids' flu...and maybe then ours from the sight of theirs!! But we also have the opportunity to see our children grow and learn and turn into amazing leaders of tomorrow...right in front of our eyes!! We truly are amazing moms! Have a blessed day and today let's try to laugh at something our child does that would normally send us into a tizzy!!! ;)