Up Close with Nature

We have a family of foxes that live right at the corner of our yard in a drain pipe that is not in use anymore. There are seven pups with their mom and each night we watch them play (from a window inside our house, of course). It's so much fun to see them prance about, they look just like kittens or puppies playing with each other. Their mom is very protective and keeps a watch on them without being seen. She darts back and forth across the road into the dark. The pipe where they live is located right under our street lamp so we can see them well, however the mom doesn't stay in the light much. I did catch her the other night sitting at the edge of the road, she looked straight at me through the window and when she moved back into the dark I realized she had been nursing three of her pups.

I spoke to our landlord yesterday and was informed that when they built this house a mother fox and her pups were living in the same ditch. She said they didn't cause any harm and when the pups got big enough the mom moved them to the woods across the street.

So, for now we are enjoying the entertainment. We will be cautious and our landlord told us to let them know if the foxes cause any trouble and they will call animal control. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.

Wish I had pictures but my phone doesn't take good pics when it's dark from a distance and a flash would only scare them away, but trust me they are CUTE.

Moore Family Films

If you haven't checked out the button on the right side of my blog that says Watch Children are a Blessing, then you should check it out. The film is only available through April 30th to be viewed for free. For those of you who question whether or not to have more children, or whether to leave the decision for the size of your family to God then this is a great film for you to see. It will also give you more of an idea as to why we leave the size of our family in God's hands and not our own. Check it out, I think you'll be greatly encouraged. Enjoy, and blessings to you and your family.

Smokies Opening Day

Last month Jim heard that for a week only the Smokies were offering tickets to their opening game for $1 a ticket. So when the discount started I called right away and purchased tickets (thank you Smokies for this great deal!). Well, last night was opening game and so we headed to the ballpark. We had great seats, yummy hotdogs, and a great atmosphere to enjoy the game.

Here are a few pictures from last night.

Josiah

Kyle

Kaitlyn

Micah with Slugger

Micah

Jonathan

Matthew

Joshua

Excited to be there.
Waiting for the game to start.

Kids playing on the playground.

Posing with Diamond, one of the mascots.

Pictures as Promised

Kaitlyn's Red, White and Blue egg

Jonathan

Matthew

Micah decorating his egg before dyeing it

Concentrate, Joshua. You can do it.

Deviled egg chicks

Cupcake helpers

Butterfly cupcakes

Easter baskets in the morning

Yummy Peeps

Family picture at church

Jonathan looking for eggs

Egg Hunt!

Kyle, "I found one!"

Kyle

Counting. Did we find them all?

Winners!

Where could those last two eggs be?

Easter Weekend

I pray that this Easter weekend found everyone enjoying the beautiful weather with egg hunts and family time and praising the Lord for the resurrection.

We spent our Saturday dyeing eggs, making cupcakes, and making resurrection cookies, after opening our last resurrection egg. Sunday morning started with Easter baskets and reading the final part of the resurrection story before eating resurrection cookies, then off to church for service and home for a big Easter meal. Afterwards, nap time (everyone was too tired and stuffed to hide eggs, so we promised to hide them the next day and everyone was ok with it), then after nap back to church then home to bed. It was a fun and busy weekend for us.

I love the holidays but I must confess I also love when the holidays are over and things slow down a bit. Getting back to our normal pace of life is always welcome after being so busy.

P.S.

I will add some pictures later. We are rearranging our computers at the moment, but I will get some pictures up soon. Blessings.

Coming Back

Well, it looks like I had more readers than I realized so starting next week I will be in full swing with my blog again. I'd like to say thank you to all the encouraging comments I received. I pray you will be blessed and encouraged as you read my blog. Thanks.

Blessings,

Tina

Missed Me?

Ok, I know I've been gone for a while and looking back at my last blog post it's been longer than I realized. I honestly have just been busy with life and I haven't even been getting on Facebook as much as I use to. Since my netbook has been broken (I still haven't gotten it fixed) I haven't blogged due to not having the ease of access and ease of downloading pics and such for my blog (I like to add pictures to my posts because I enjoy blogs with pics). I'm still using the family computer, which the kids use for school and isn't available as often for blogging, and it has so much stuff on it I feel like I don't need to add more pictures to slow it down.

However, I have recently been considering starting to blog again. I would like your input though. Is there anyone out there interested in reading my blog or should I not worry about starting it up again? I do enjoy blogging. It's a great way to keep a family diary of sorts. The purpose of starting my blog was for it to be used as a ministry to bless others and to answer the daily question of "How do you do it?"

So tell me, would you be interested in my blogs and seeing on a daily basis what the Merli household it up to? Let me know, please. Thanks.

Blessings,

Tina