Life with our Kitten

We have now had our kitten for a whole week now!
We had been going back and forth saying "It's a boy!" "It's a girl!" but we finally got to the vet who told us that it is a girl!! (Poor Dad.) Because of that factor the name we had chosen (Stormy) no longer fits.  So instead because she is so small we named her Milli.

We've been kinda worried that she isn't settling in well.

What do you think?.......

By Jacqueline

Insane

That is the word that would best describe us at this moment.


We have brought this......

Stormy & Audrey

(the cat not Audrey)

Into our house.

Yes, we know, you don't have to tell us.

We're insane.

A six week old kitten with our two, grumpy, middle-aged Cats.

( for those of you who don't know Twitchy died in January)

Yup......

We found him in a storm drain in the parking lot of the grocery store.  It took 30 minutes and half a can of wet food before we caught him.

In the last 36 hours he has resided in our home he has already:

*let us pick him up   *pet him

*purred   *begun to play

*gotten stuck behind the piano   *made the acquaintance of the above grumpy cats (did NOT go well)

Of course his meeting with the grumpy cats deserves its own paragraph.  Cecile sniffed him a few times and got her tail as bushy as a bottle brush before she promptly hissed.
Red didn't even have to sniff a few times before she decided that the cat was pure evil.   She hissed and growled her head off.

 By Jacqueline

New Year Resolutions

(These are just a few of the book I want to read and re-read)

I started this blog primarily to research and write about history. It has started drifting from it's stated goal and New Years is a great time to realign it.  This last April was the 150th anniversary of the start of the "Civil War" . We at Oak Cottage (Yes, we named the house.  Don't you like it?)  have become very, very interested in the Civil War.  So  I want to spend the next few years reading and talking about the causes of the Civil War, the people involved, the battles, the weapons, the daily life both of those in camp and those left at home, the clothes (I have mentioned that I like old clothes, haven't I?).  We have even talked about finding recipes and trying them!

But if History is not your thing, don't worry.  There will be plenty of posts about projects, politics, and daily life in general. 

I hope you look forward to the new year as much as I do.  I can't wait to see what God wants to show me in the next twelve months.  

{ Note:  As I am a History major  and not yet a historian , I reserve all rights to change my mind if I should come across new information in the next 80 years. :0)}

Answers

1st row L-R: John Calhoun, John Calvin, C.S. Lewis, Dorothy L Sayer, Lady Jane Grey

2nd row: Jane Austen, St. Augustine, Elizabeth Gaskell, Martin Luther, Charles Dickens

3rd row: William Wilberforce, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Winston Churchill, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry 

4th row:William Shakespeare, John Bunyan, Abigail Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Madison

5th row:Thomas (a.k.a Stonewall) Jackson, J.S. Bach, Robert E. Lee, King Edward VI, Sir William  Blackstone

We had a lot of fun looking up people and trying to decide who should go in the collage.  Some people's picture (like John Calhoun, Dorothy L Sayer, Patrick Henry, William Blackstone, and William Wilberforce) was totally unfamiliar to us so it was nice to have a face to go with the name. 

Behind the Name

On of the best things about history is that you can study a person's whole life.  You can see how the choices they made, both the good and the bad, came to fruition.  Hebrew 12:1, which is one of  the mottoes for this blog, talks about being compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses.  These are the people who have run and finished their race.  They now serve as examples to us, encouraging us to persevere to the end of  our races in a God-honoring, glorious manner.   

I have always been amazed by the wisdom of the past.  Its insights are so clear and its criticisms are so just, that I am constantly astonished how people hundreds of years ago, whose life is nothing like mine, can possible counsel me how to best deal with a problem or inspire me to be all that God expects me to be.  

This is only possible because the Truth of God's Word spans time.  The Truth that these men and women studied and then applied to their lives is constant.  What they wore, where they lived, what they ate is inconsequential when compared to the fact they loved God so much that they allowed His Word and His Truth to form their character and permeate every area of their lives.  This is what makes their lives and examples a timeless model and makes their advice worth having.

So how do we know who are the best models?  First off, we must know the Bible ourselves.  You can't steer clear of  bad thinking if you can't recognize it.  Then, assuming that the person has a Biblical worldview, we examine their lives and ask ourselves a few questions.  How do they develop their God-given talents?  How do they use their time?  How do they respond to trials?  What do they do when they fail?  

Proverbs 27:27 says, " Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend."  By taking the advice of those who have gone before and learning from their lives I sharpen my character against theirs.  What could make them a more Worthy Friend?

Challenge:

How many of my Worthy Friends in the collage can you name?  Comment and let me know.

Hi...

I'm Audrey.

I am a 16 year old history fanatic. I love books and old clothes, babies and flowers, yarn and baked goods. I live with my parents and little sister, Jacqueline, in Georgia.

I decided to start this blog to record the lives of my family, to practice my research and writings skills, and most importantly to spotlight good books and show people God's hand in history.

History is a passion of mine. It reveals the wonderful outworking of God's love and providence in the lives of his people. God uses circumstances to make men more Christ-like. Great men write about their struggles and growth to exhort and encourage us. They provide amazing role models for us in our journey through life.

Unfortunately, history is being attacked. If you watch the news or listen to people talk about history, you can see that our Founding Fathers, the Puritans, and other Godly leaders and the principles they stood for are being censured. It is time to set the record straight. We, as Christians and Americans, need to find, learn, and defend the truth. My goal for this blog is to help people do just that.