Ancient Egypt

We are studying Ancient Egypt in The Mystery of History this week . We took a good look at pyramids and how they were made. Did you know that some pyramids were as long as 10 football fields and 40 stories high?? We also looked at the process that goes into mummifying. The girls decided to make Nathan the dead King and mummy him up. He was cool with that, he said,"just don't flush me!"

Home Study

Our first of three Home Studies for adoption will begin in about 30 min.! If you see this blog, please pray for us this morning as we take another step of faith in this adoption process! We are excited, but nervous! Thanks ~ Jackie

West Virginia Wedding

We had such a good time at the wedding in West Virginia this weekend. We love it up there so much! They are all like family to us. Abby had a great time being a part of the wedding. Congratulations Adam and Ashleigh!

Abby is doing Beyond Five in a Row this year and she is loving it. She is reading the Boxcar Children and then has daily activities based on the topics that are being read about in the book. She is keeping a scrapbook with all the topics she is studying.

Abby's Homeschool Scrapbook

A Praise!

Last night as I was cleaning up the kitchen, Esther came to me and started asking questions about God and why Jesus would leave Heaven and come to earth if He was going to die on the cross? I explained to her why He came and how we were able to go to heaven if we ask Him to forgive us of our sins. She said, "I think we need to go sit in the red rocking chair and you need to pray with me and I need to do that." We sat down and I tried to explain everything to her in a way she could understand and I was about to ask her if she would like to repeat a prayer after me when all of a sudden she started praying on her own. She ask Jesus to forgive her for all the bad things she does like being a tattletale and that she really wanted to go to heaven, so would he please come into her heart!

When she finished praying she wanted to know when we could all go to heaven together and that would she know when it was time to leave. She also had lots of questions about how He could live in her heart and be in heaven at the same time. I tried to not use "heart" when explaining it all to her, but she had heard that in Sunday School and it had stuck. She was just amazed He could live inside her and she could talk to Him whenever she wanted to.

When I was ready to tuck her in, she said tuck US in, because Jesus is here too and then she patted her little chest and said , Go ahead and say your prayers He is here and He is listening!

She went to sleep with a big smile on her face and told me she hoped that she would dream about Heaven! I am so thankful that the Lord allowed all three of my little lights to come to Him at a young age! So welcome Esther Hope into God's great big family!!

Homeschool Open House 2007

I am participating in the homeschool open house this year!

My name is Jackie and I am a 30-something year old mom that lives in Florida. I have 3 amazing children, Abby is 9 and in 4th grade, Nathan is 7 and in 2nd grade and Esther Hope is my 5 year old kindergal. We have a school room in our loft. I have an old kitchen table that we work at most of the time although, we have been known to spread out all over the house and even outside.

One of the main curriculum's we use is Five in a Row. It has been such a blessing to me and the kids have had so much fun learning and making lapbooks and going on fieldtrips. I usually try to expand the science subject that our Five in a Row book is doing and we study that in depth together that week or the next. I also use a lot of Magic School Bus for science. Abby is doing Beyond Five in a Row as well and loves it. She is reading the Boxcar Children right now.

We also use Abeka for Math and Language/Phonics/Handwriting. I have also discovered The Mystery of History this year and we are doing that for History and also Bible. It is a chronological study of the Bible and History together. I have found it fascinating.

Our Schedule is different every day, but basically, we wake up and have breakfast and Abby begins her "folder work" (Math and Language that is in her folder for the day) She likes to get an early start, so I allow the two little ones time to play while I do chores and help Abby. We all get together for MOH and Bible and then our FIAR and Science. After that Abby does her chores and I begin working with Nathan and Esther on phonics and math. We break for lunch and then I finish up with the little ones and Abby does her Beyond FIAR or silent reading. We are usually finished by 2:00 unless we get going on a project.

I have a reading list similar to Book It that we do once a month. If each student has read the amount of books required, we have a jar with slips of paper in it. The papers have different restaurants on them and we pull one out and have dinner out wherever the paper says to.It is a end of the month special for all of us (Mommy included)!

We have Fun Fridays every week where we do something special. Sometimes it is a fieldtrip or park, sometime it is baking cookies or cupcakes. We have been known to do a movie afternoon and turn off all the lights and pop popcorn and pile up on the couch or a trip to Dairy Queen to celebrate another week at home learning together!

I feel very blessed to homeschool, but I will never promise to continue for a long term. I take each school year and pray over it and search to make sure this is what The Lord wants me to do and that my motives are pure. I am thankful that He has allowed me to continue so far.

Thanks for taking a peek at our homeschool!

Phone number info

This is for all of you who actually call me as well as read my blog! We are cancelling our land line phone service. Almost everyone calls our cell phones anyway and all I get from the home phone is telemarketers. They call all morning while I am trying to teach and frankly, I am getting tired of paying $65 a month to answer the phone and say, " no thank you, I am not interested!" So FYI....call our cell phones!

Happy Birthday Tim Tebow!!

Tim Tebow is our favorite gator. He is a christian, he was homeschooled and he is awesome on the football field! We were able to go to a gator game last year and every time he was on the field the whole crowd yelled" TEBOW TEBOW". Nathan thought that was the coolest thing ever! Today is his birthday, sooo "Happy Birthday Tim from the Mullis family!"



If you are a Tebow fan, a really funny website is http://www.timtebowfacts.com/


This is from Wikipedia:

The fifth child of Bob and Pam Tebow, both of whom are University of Florida graduates, Tim was born on August 14, 1987 in the Philippines where his parents were serving as Christian missionaries.[1]
All of the Tebow children were homeschooled by their mother who also worked to instill the family’s deep religious beliefs along the way. In 1996, legislation was passed in Florida allowing homeschooled students to compete in local high school sporting events. The law specifies that homeschool students may participate on the team of the local school in the county and school district in which they live. The Tebows lived in Duval County and Tim played linebacker and tight end for Trinity Christian in Jacksonville for one season, but his dream was to play quarterback. Trinity did not pass the ball much and Tim didn’t want to hand it off every play, so he began to explore his options. Nease liked to throw the ball and Coach Craig Howard was known for his passing offense so Tim and his mother moved in to an apartment down the street from the Nease High School in St. Johns County. With the rest of his family living on a farm in Jacksonville, Tim began playing quarterback for Nease High School in St. Augustine and his performance soon began to turn some heads which even led to a minor controversy over him being a homeschooled student.[2]
As a junior, Tebow’s stock continued to rise as he became a high profile, highly recruited major college quarterback prospect. The 6’3”, 225 lb (1.91 m, 102 kg) quarterback continued to impress during his senior season leading the Nease Panthers to a state title, earning All-State honors, was named Florida's Mr. Football and a Parade All-American. Tebow finished his high school career with 9,810 passing yards, 3,186 rushing yards, 95 passing touchdowns and 62 rushing touchdowns. He played in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl Game in San Antonio, Texas which features the top 78 senior high school football players in the nation and is shown nationally on NBC television.
Despite having parental and sibling ties to the University of Florida, Tim remained open minded during the recruiting process and became very close to Alabama coach Mike Shula. But after careful consideration and much deliberation, he decided to play for the team he felt best suited his skills and style of play. Tebow chose to play for coach Urban Meyer and the Florida Gators, who employ a similar “spread option” offense that he excelled in at Nease High School.
Tebow was considered one of the nation’s top recruits and was the subject of an ESPN “Faces in Sports” documentary. The segment was titled "Tim Tebow: The Chosen One", and focused on Tim’s homeschool controversy and missionary work in the Philippines, as well as his exploits on the field of play and the college recruiting process. Tim Tebow was also featured in Sports Illustrated on the “Faces in the Crowd” page. On January 7, 2007, Tebow was featured prominently in an ESPN “Outside The Lines” feature on homeschooled athletes seeking equal access to high school athletics in other states. Many believe that Tebow's strong character and pursuit of excellence serve as a shining example of the virtues of homeschooling. In fact, his popularity inspired "equal access" supporters in Alabama to name their bill in the Alabama Legislature "The Tim Tebow Bill".[3] The bill, which is pending in the Alabama Legislature, will allow Alabama home school athletes to play for their local high school teams just as Tebow did in Florida.

Our yard

When we first bought our house we had the great idea that we would do all the landscaping ourselves.After all, the hard part was already done, it was just maintaining it that we would have to do and it would be a good hobby for us. Well, after 11 months in the house, the yard was a great bane to me. I did not even want to sit on the front or back porch or go check the mail because all I saw was weeds weeds WEEDS! I am woman enough to say it....I do not like yard work, in fact I hate it. I would rather clean bathrooms, wash 100 loads of laundry, bake 10 cakes than go pull weeds, especially when it is 95 degees at 8:00 in the morning!! Soooo...
We had a man who came and mowed the yard, but that was all he did and not a very good job at that, so Greg talked to the man who does all the landscaping at Bartow Ford and he came Saturday and with some of his friends and they worked a miracle on our yard!! Nicly trimmed bushes, and no weeds in the rocks!
Fresh mowed grass and all the shrubs around the fish pond cleared out.
Look mom! No Weeds!!
This picture really does not do justice to how the front yard looks.
This is a picture of our grape vines that are loaded with grapes.In about 2 weeks I will be making jelly!
I would really like to say that it was all our hard work that made the yard look so good, but I will have to give the credit to Jose' and all his hard working buddies...I am just glad he is planning on coming back to maintain my (ahem).... hobby. I am sure our neighbors are too!

Simple Gifts

'Tis the gift to be simple,'tis the gift to be free,'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,And when we find ourselves in the place just right,It will be in the valley of love and delight.
Refrain:
When true simplicity is gained,To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed.To turn, turn will be our delight,'Til by turning, turning we come round right

This is an old Shaker hymn that I have been thinking on the past few days. I long for the simplicity that cannot be attained by money or postion. A realtionship with Jesus is my desire and in having that, all of the worldly things that seem to beckon me to spend time and money on seem to fade away.
1 Timonthy 6:6-8 But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us therewith be content.

Lesson from the Manna Part 3

Control
The control of the food and the provision of it was God's and God's alone.

Deut. 8:2-3 All the commandments which I command you this day ye shall observe to do, that ye may live and multiply/ and go in and possess the land which the Lord swareunto your fathers And thou shalt remember all the ways which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whither thou would keep thy commandments, or no.

No matter where they traveled to those forty long years, the manna was always there, all they had to do was pick it up. He humbled them because they had nothing to do with it, it was all God. I think that is why salvation is so hard for people to understand, there is nothing you can do to earn it or to work for it. God's grace alone is the way to heaven, and that leave us (mankind) out of control. And don't we like to be in control!!
The same is true for our problems and concerns. He tells us that His yoke is easy, His burden light. Why shouldn't we give Him our worries, but when we do that, we are again out of control of the situation and that makes most of us feel uneasy. Where, but in God's hands should our concerns be left? He knows best and He also knows the best outcome, so in my way of thinking, leaving them in His capable hands is the best place for them.

I keep thinking on how they had to get out of their tent and gather the manna. If they stayed in the tent they would starve. How many of us want the preacher to hook us up to a spiritual IV and allow us to be fed that way. Well, that will sustain us, and we may live, but what kind of life is that? You can't taste nourishment from an IV, no one ever gets off an IV and craves to go back on. The word of God is so sweet when it is eaten from the Creators hand alone. When we experience that then it will be something to crave more enjoyable than a bowl of ice cream or popcorn ever was!

Oh Taste and See that the Lord is good, blesseth is the man that trusteth in HIM! (Psalms 34:8)

Lesson from the Manna Part 2

A Daily Dependence
It must be taken up daily. (Verse 20)
Why? Why not in one big gathering day for the week and be done with it? God wanted them to come to Him in a daily relationship. His provisions were not there because He needed us to be dependent on HIM, He wants to be in a realtionship with us and we need to be in a relationship with Him, but the only way most fo us will come to HIM is if we are desperate and dependent, not on our own free will. When we think we have it together we tend to forget about God. HE gives us the need as well as the provision for the need!

They tried to store up (verse 20)
And when they did it got worms and stank! How often we try to store up on spiritual bread on Sunday and make it last until Wednesday! Manna was meant to be eaten fresh every day, so we are to come to the Bread of Life every day for our fresh portion. Jesus said " Give us this day or daily bread." The whole reason we were created was to have a relationship with and to glorify the creator of the whole universe. Why do we neglect so great a priviledge?

A lesson from Manna

I am in the 3rd week of a Beth Moore Bible study on the tabernacle. The Lord has really been speaking to my heart over some of the things He taught the children of Israel while they were in the wilderness and how we can apply them to our lives today

Exodus 16:16-21
This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man according to the number of your persons, take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so and gathered some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer , he that had much had nothing left over, he that gathered little had no lack, they gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said,Let no man leave of it till the morning." Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses, but some of them left of it until morning and it bred worms and stank, and Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every morning , every man according to his eating and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.

1. The grace of God
God provided just enough for each one of them. Every one in each tent had just enough, not too much, not too little. How often I have looked on the life of someone that has lost a child or a spouse, how their world has been torn upside down by tragedy and thought there is NO WAY I could ever get through something like that. I am right. On my own, I could never get through a tragedy, but if I needed that extra amount of grace, I know beyond any doubt God would provide it. Just enough to get through each day..no more, no less. How do I know this?

The disciples asked this too in John 6:30-35. They ask for a sign as their fathers in the wilderness was given bread to eat and Jesus said in verse 35 " I am the Bread of Life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." In 2 Peter 1:3 we are told "His divine power has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue."

Just like the manna, every day our bread is there, just what we need. All we have to do is get up and gather it every morning.