Rabbit Season

This spring ushered in a new experience for us. We had not one, but two litters of baby bunnies to care for.  Well, to be fair, Benjamin had two litters to care for. He has taken over the care of our rabbits in hopes of making it a successful business of sorts.

I'll first introduce you to Father, known as Snow-flake, though I think Benj has since given him a more masculine sounding title.

 

And, our dear mother rabbit known as Cocoa. She is a stray that came to us last summer.

 

 

The first was a litter of three fuzzy lil' snuggy-pies. 

 

Who, of course, all grew to be Adorable.

 

 Boy, are they fun when they are small!

 

Sadly, just after we moved them to their own hutches, two of them escaped.  Insert teary face. :(

 

However, the sadness was short lived, as a new litter of five babies arrived on the scene. Everyone was elated!!

 

Then the next sadness: Momma rabbit flew the coop...er...hopped the hutch, so to speak.  A litter of five with no momma to nurse them??!!

 

Benjamin to the Rescue!

 

 

Benj was a hero and worked hard to hand feed those babies all throughout the day. They were doing fairly well for a week or so. Slowly, though, they started to weaken and, one by one, we said good-bye to the litter.  Insert more sad tears.

 

By the end, we had one little guy left that Elizabeth named, Endurance, and called Eddie. She took over the nursing care of him, but he still didn't make it. He passed away the day after these photos were taken. *tears*

 

Sadly, our little family of babies now rests in the family plot in our yard. I did have a few real tears as I watched my boy dig the grave on that rainy day. *sniff*

 

A sweet blessing came about a week later.  While driving home, the children spotted one of the bunnies at a neighbor's house hopping happily along. They pulled over and were able to catch him! The neighbor said she had been feeding him for a while.  He was plenty chubby, that's for sure! She said she had seen the other nearby, but the children were unable to find her.

 

They are SO happy to have this sweetie guy home again.

 

So, the sign "Baby Bunnies, Reserve One Now!" came down and the two buns left from the litters will have a permanent home here with us.  No more rabbit breeding in our future, as we seem to have lost our Last Female...unless she or her mother surprise us by coming back again one day.

 

Such is often the way of life and business. Not always what we hope for or plan for, but, by the grace of God, always filled with lessons of love and growth.

 

"Many plans are in a man's heart, But the counsel of the LORD will stand."

Proverbs 19:21

Susannah is Seven!

Susannah Joy

 

Could any child be more aptly named? 

Let's see, she *does* have some other nicknames that fit as well.  Zuzu.  Black-eyed Zuzu. Zannah. Zuke. And, of course, Daddy's favorite, Texas Tornado.  Okay, those all fit as well.  You know that character, Ellie, from the movie, Up? Well, now you know our Susannah.

She's a girl full of life and we love all of her energy, spirit, and joy!

Turning Seven is a Big Deal. 

 

Especially when it involves the adoption of a long, and I mean long as in Waited At Least Two Years But Felt Like Seven, looooong awaited pet.  Enter: Liberty the female Beta Fish.  Too bad she only lasted about a week and half. Good thing they had a 2 week guarantee and Liberty was followed by her male cousin, King.

 

 

Susannah has spent a great deal of her energy learning to read this year. She's still not convinced it's worth all that sitting and practicing of flash cards and word lists.  The numbers come much easier for her, but she really is a great student. 

 

More than that, she has a strong grasp of the truths of scripture and desires to challenge others to apply them. We're working on helping her see that self-application comes first. Ahem.

Her birthday was a mix of independence as she bought her own fish with her own birthday money from Nana, and strengthening those sweet ties to her family with hand stitched gifts and feelings of love and affection.

 

Of course, we kept the tradition of choosing a cake and a trip with Mom to the library.

 
We are praying the year to come for Susannah is one filled with wonderful lessons and growth in areas of self-control, grace, servanthood, and, above all, a depth of understanding and love for the Lord. 

I love to watch this little whirlwind of life grow into a beautiful example of true joy.

 

"You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever."

Psalm 16:11

Feelin' Fallish

Some odds and ends we've been doing as we enjoy these last lovely fall days mixed with some gorgeous photos by Elizabeth from around the yard.



 

Stacking wood... 

Why, yes. They *did* coordinate their outfits to stack wood together. Don't all lumberjacks wear red? ;)

 

 Papa and Grandma came to spend the day helping us with our yard work.  Grandma was very busy working and playing with all her little girlies.  She has quite a following. ;)

Taking out what dead limbs we could reach in preparation for Hurricane Sandy.

 

 

A special treat for us today. An inverted rainbow right over our house! Actually, we could *almost* make out the full ring, but one side had clouds covering it. What a neat blessing. :)

 

    "As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking."

Ezekiel 1:28