hugging my family tightly

Today, I’m sad for the South. Rarely, are we personally faced with such immense tragedy. I’m grateful to have my home intact. I’m blessed to have my family safe. I am shocked at the damage done, yet I am forever in love with our God-who is greatly to be praised in the midst of suffering. He is all knowing. His purposes surpass our understanding. I pray this storm would grab the attention of people. We can store up wealth and beautiful things, and in an instant, it can be lost. Our loved ones can be taken at any moment. Today, we could be in eternity simply from the storm that just left us. I pray we would cling to our eternal God who bore the wrath of sin on our behalf, so that through Him, we may have everlasting life. This world is sad. Don’t live for it! It promises us nothing! Cling to Jesus who gave His life to give us abundance. Please find that abundance in him and stop searching for it in this fallen world.

I do not take lightly what people are going through right now. It looks like scenes from a movie. My heart is breaking, and I can't imagine the hurt. We are praying for our neighbors. Needless to say, I'm hugging my family a little more tightly tonight.

That being said, I originally planned on having an Easter post. In light of recent events, most of this post is dedicated to our recent weather outbreak.

We had a wonderful Easter holiday. We love Easter in the Patridge household. It is a holiday in which we refuse to travel, and we simply enjoy the fact that we are celebrating the day that all scriptures were fulfilled. Without the resurrection, we have no faith! So, we CELEBRATE!

First, following our American traditions, we let Hudson play in his Easter basket, which contained fun stuff like bubbles and a book. The boy loves books. They will distract him for minutes. We also read some scripture together concerning the resurrection.



Afterwards, we met the Patridge crew at Briarwood Presbyterian Church for a wonderful service.




Hudson was in his Easter best. Thanks Ge for making the beautiful outfit! It had so much detail. WE love love loved it!



After church, we came back to our house for lasagna, salad, rolls, and chocolate pie! Hudson loved the attention from all his uncles.









We missed you Maw Maw and Paw Paw!

pictures and good friday

Here a few of our favorite pictures from Hud's recent photo shoot:
(all pics by Laura Rowe Photography)























Happy Good Friday!

Isaiah 53:5-"But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed."

Good Friday is a day in which we remember the cross. He died so we might live!

call it what it is

Note: If you aren't the main grocery shopper in your family, skip to the end of this post. It will save you 5 minutes of your life.

Extreme couponing....more like extreme obsession/addiction. I'm not talking to the average coupon queen. I'm talking to that lady who spends 20 plus hours a week preparing for a grocery trip. Don't tell me it's free! You simply got paid for working! There is no reason I should own 1,000 tubes of toothpaste or buy 55 jars of mustard just because it is free!

Ok, that was my soapbox for couponing. That being said, I love to coupon. I spend around 1 hour every week preparing for my grocery trip. I try to match up in store savings with store coupons, competitor coupons, and manufacturer's coupon. If it isn't on sale and I need it, I search for a coupon. Publix doubles my manufacturer's coupons up to 50 cents, so I can actually get most things cheaper at Publix even if it isn't on sale.

I also won't snag a deal simply because it is cheap. If it is bad for my family, it isn't worth buying. I try to limit our processed food intake, so even if it is cheap, I usually go with fresh produce, veggies, and fruit. I do however jump on Gushers when they are BOGO with coupons. They made my hubby's day!

For example, here is my typical coupon adventure. This week at Publix I got sweet potatoes, 2 jars of pasta sauce, 2 fresh vegetables, red potatoes, 3 fresh fruits, coffee creamer, feta cheese, hummus, pasta, canned veggies, pita bread, sour cream, lettuce, frozen veggies, 2 bags of shredded cheese, sliced cheese, dip, organic yogurt, yoplus yogurt, 2 boxes of granola bars, eggs, 2 cartons of milk, butter, and cereal. I spent $42.94 and saved $38.16. I was happy. I got only what we needed, and I got it cheap. I did have to make a trip to Walmart for a few things, but thankfully, we were pretty stocked up on meat this week!

Saving money is fun! I love to see those prices drop. However, if you see me hoarding bottles of shampoo under my son's crib, please gather my closest friends for an intervention.

Disclaimer--If you are that kind of couponer, I am in no place to say you are crazy. Just don't neglect your family in order to stock up for the rare event that we face a zombie crisis.

We recently had Hudson's one year pictures. Our photographer is wonderful! If you live in the Birmingham area, look her up! She is talented and very reasonably priced!

Here is her website:
www.laurarowephotography.com

Hosanna in the highest!

Matthew 21:1-11-Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord needs them,' and he will send them at once." This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying,

"Say to the daughter of Zion,
'Behold your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.'"

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, "Who is this?" And the crowds said, "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee."

Thank you Jesus for being our great deliverer!

Happy Palm Sunday! I pray this Holy Week would be a week in which we reflect on our Savior and His greatness. Contentment is only found in Him. He is our source of true joy!

house rules

After nearly three years of marriage, we have unknowingly developed a few unspoken "house rules." You know, those types of rules that are created without discussion- simply due to spending so much time together. Below are a few of ours. This may give you a little insight into our marriage.

In no particular order:

No serious talk after 9 pm.

Dinner cannot include any type of nut in the main dish or sides. This also applies to the ingredient cumin.

The wifey gets the remote in bed.

Any alarm clock that goes off more than twice may or may not be thrown down
the stairs.

Chipotle is never a lunch or dinner option.

Mr. Pibb is not the same as Dr. Pepper and should not be found in the fridge. Dr Thunder is acceptable.

Whoever smells the poop must change the diaper.

A certain person should always have at least a sip of coffee before directly spoken to in the morning.

It isn't necessary to play the same You Tube video over and over. After three times, please wear headphones.

All Scrabble matches must be played with the Official Scrabble Dictionary. No guessing words are real!

It makes me smile to think about how much you learn about someone through sharing life with them. It is funny how you know other's quirks and silly likes and dislikes. We are really learning that considering the other person better than yourself (Phil 2:3) really does wonders for our marriage! Love you Hubs!

Mr. Hudson is quickly approaching his 1st birthday. He is still crawling everywhere, and he has finally figured out how to cruise all over the furniture. Instead of playing with his toys, he would rather try to push the buttons on all electronics as well as repeatedly swinging the flat screen up against the wall.--It's on a swivel. He likes to jump in his bed. He loves pasta, but dislikes any type of breakfast food. He has 7 teeth. He waves, motorboats, shakes his head no, locates eyes and noses, and claps. He zones out to Praise Baby once a day. He loves outside. He makes me laugh out loud.

March Recap

I can't believe March is over! Soccer season has been in full force...which means Hudson and I miss Daddy lots.:( We did enjoy going to a few of his games, and we had a great, but busy, spring break.

We started our garden this month. So far, all we have are tomatoes and parsley. Will is going to make a raised garden area soon. We are thinking more herbs, peppers, and cucumbers.



On the reading front, Will and I finished "Flight Path." I also read "Passionate Homemakers Desperate for God." Funny title, but a really good read. For my fun reading, I finally finished the Harry Potter series! I can't wait to read them again with Hudson. Note: I was once an avid Harry Potter hater. I must say it doesn't take long to fall in love with these books!

For April, Will and I are both reading the "Hunger Games." The series has three very easy to read books. I actually have already finished the first two. Great books! I am also staring to read "The Mission of Motherhood." It is lengthy and very meaty, so I probably won't finish it anytime in the near future.

I also finished another sewing project. This project only took one day! I made Huds some play shorts! Sorry, no picture!

As far as our home goes, we did get some decorating done during the busyness of March.

The most notable change is probably the stairway wall:

I took an idea from the young house love guys and planned where I would put pictures by using old newspaper clippings and white paper:



Here is the work in progress:



This project was super cheap. Most of the picture frames were from the thrift store. The only change I made was white paint. The monogrammed P was free online from the wedding chic diva, and I found the old hymnal song! I am going to add more family pictures and some wall art from etsy.

I also started a similar project in Hudson's room. So far, I have old grandparent pictures, belly pictures, family pictures, and little mementos. The pictures are slightly crooked in this photo:





Check out our new table runner:





Super easy and cheap---a few yards of Burlap added so much to our big table!

We are looking forward to the month ahead...warm weather, park play dates, and planning Hudson's first birthday bash! Like I said earlier, I feel like the months are flying by so quickly. Someone once told me that in the life of a mother, the days go by slowly, and the years go by quickly. So true! There are so many moments I wish I could freeze!