Thought for the day

A few months back I was reading through a wonderful book by Rev. John Newton (author of Amazing Grace). The book is entitled: Out of the Depths and is an autobiography, written in a series of 14 "letters" to his friend the Rev. T. Haweis; these letters were first published in 1764, and so the verbiage may seem unusual to our ears, but nonetheless enlightening! I was very much encouraged by this little book, it is fairly bursting with nuggets of gold, and he writes in such an inspiring way! This particular quote that I am going to share with you today is taken from the back of the book, under a section entitled Some remarks made by Newton in Familiar Conversation.



"Sometimes I compare the troubles which we have to undergo in the course of the year to a great bundle of *fagots, far too large for us to lift. But God does not require us to carry the whole at once; He mercifully unties the bundle, and gives us first one stick, which we are to carry today, and then another which we are to carry tomorrow, and so on. This we might easily manage, if we would only take the burden appointed for us each day; but we chose to increase our troubles by carrying yesterday's stick over again today, and adding tomorrow's burden to our load, before we are required to bear it."



[*Editor's note: According to Webster's 1828 Dictionary a fagot was: "a bundle of sticks, twigs or small branches of trees, used for fuel, or for raising batteries, filling ditches, and other purposes in fortification. The French use fascine, from the Latin, fascis, a bundle."] -Abby

Cleaning

Today we are cleaning our school room. It was so dirty! We had wet rags to clean with. It was pretty fun, if you call cleaning fun. :) We still are not done. I like cleaning.
Johanna (9)

Froggie!

A Red-eyed Tree Frog

Here is a really cool picture of a frog that Caleb drew! It looks SO real, especially the eyes! He as drawn that same picture several other times. Enjoy his talent!

~ Phoebe

Verse for the day

As I was perusing a devotional book that we own, I came across a very thought provoking passage in the Epistle of First John:

"This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." 1 John 1:5-7 NKJV

Our "outdoor kitchen"

Abby (left) & I (right) cook breakfast outside on our new grill.

Pancakes, pancakes!

This morning Abby, & I (Abby mostly) made breakfast outside in our "outdoor kitchen", which is just really a gas grill given to us by our neighbor. Fried onions potatoes, & homemade pancakes! Very delicious! Johanna was the photographer.

~ Phoebe

Our Family

In downtown McKinney, Texas. The picture was taken Thanksgiving day.

Phoebe's hope chest pictures

Here is a picture of the items in my "hope chest", which is really a plastic container! :) Three of the items I got today for my 12th birthday. Phoebe

Happy 12th Birthday Phoebe!

Today is Phoebe's (our 4th child) 12th birthday.

Happy birthday to you sweet Phoebe!

I (Abby) wanted to let you know how special you are to my heart, and also that I pray your day is filled with all kinds of joy & blessings straight from the hand of our awesome Creator God!

We love you Phoebe!

Dad, Mom, Joel, Abby, Caleb, Jo & Jaden

Welcome to Texas Skies!

Welcome to our new blog!



Wow! We are so excited to be blogging! We will have more posts soon (at a more sane time we hope!). We pray that you will be blessed and encouraged as you read our blog.



Blessings,

The Kautts