Favorite Fall Picture Books

 

Each year our family celebrates the first day of fall with a tradition we’ve come to call, Fallibration. During our annual celebration, we eat a pumpkin themed breakfast on fall themed paper plates and napkins, read all of our favorite fall picture books, and proceed to watch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Remastered Deluxe Edition). We’ve carried on this tradition for several years and our pile of books has grown along with our excitement over the day.

Here is a list of our favorite fall picture books that we believe you are sure to enjoy! We will be reading and rereading these throughout October.

What are your favorite fall picture or chapter books? Which traditions does your family uphold each fall? Let me know in the comments below.

 








Happy Reading,

 

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We Fall Once More

Fall Once More

Yesterday marked the first day of fall. We had a humble, but much anticipated, celebration in our home all day which we lovingly termed our Fallibration. Nothing fancy, just simple fun. A fall sign made from repurposed brown packaging paper from an Amazon order, dollar store cups, plates, and a table cloth, and plenty of baking and books for all.

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Each year the turn of seasons is a good place to pause, praise, and perceive what the Savior is teaching us in our current season. Also, to identify what type of season we are in. It is easy for us, particularly women I believe, to assess our entire season of life on the last week alone. I know I do. My husband can ask me how I, we, our family is doing, and I will base my answer on the afternoon and not the week or season in its entirety.

We are back in the throws of toddlerhood and homeschooling as September is turning a brilliant red and bursting into October. I have failed in grace and fallen so many times in need of grace. Can you relate? In fact, this week, while apologizing to my oldest son, my daughter quipped with a knowing grin, We have to forgive you everyday mommy. It’s true, we fall once more and need to be forgiven daily. Maybe not by our children–as my daughter was partially teasing, or maybe we so– but certainly by our Heavenly Father. The maker and sustainer of our physical seasons and our life’s seasons knows our weaknesses and limitations. He remembers out of the dust we were formed. We fall once more and then turn and fall into the forgiving grace-filled arms of the Savior.

We repent and seek change in ourselves, our reactions, and reconciliation with God and man daily. God knows we will fall under self-sustained burdens. That is why we need to be in fellowship and friendship, with Him, with a local Body of Believers, and with the Church Universal. He assures us in His word:

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.  (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)

Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.… (Matthew 11:28-29)

As we fall once more, may we keep these and similar verses in mind so that we may fall forward in grace and sanctification; sustaining ourselves with God’s Word, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the fellowship of believers.

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The Changing of Seasons

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The fall, a time of tailgating, football, pumpkin treats, and the fading smell of freshly sharpened pencils. This fall finds our family at more soccer games than football because our Emily is playing Upward Soccer with her good Coach Dad.

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This fall also finds us saying goodbye to Little E for four days a week as he goes off to visit his biological parents respectively. I am fighting this one however as any sane person will admit that a two and a half year old boy needs a steady home…not a rotation of three. The joys and struggles of foster care are abundant this harvest season. However, this little boy is abundantly worth both the joys and struggles we sow in hopes of an eternal harvest of joy.

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From the acorn caps scattered under our feet to the delicious caramel apples gathered in the grocery store, signs of fall are everywhere.

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Finally, as the fall season approaches on the 22nd of September, the fall of man also is on full display… everywhere. Diagnosis after diagnosis, declaration of judges in federal and local courts, and a call to weapons of war resound in our ears constantly reminding us that this earth is in a state of decay.

As we face the decay of life, season after fleeting season, we must remember the hope to which we are called. Ponder the hope of a new heaven and a new earth. We are to seek the changing of the eternal seasons from finite time to the infinite realization of relationship between God and man. We long for the return of God’s created order to earth. We long to see the miraculous a midst the fall.

We modern people think of miracles as the suspension of the natural order, but Jesus meant them to be the restoration of the natural order. The Bible tells us that God did not originally make the world to have disease, hunger, and death in it. Jesus has come to redeem where it is wrong and heal the world where it is broken. His miracles are not just proofs that he has power but also wonderful foretastes of what he is going to do with that power. Jesus’s miracles are not just a challenge to our minds, but a promise to our hearts, that the world we all want is coming. (Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, p. 99, emphasis mine)

This season as we tromp crunch, crunch, crunch through the dead and decaying leaves, let’s also look up and admire the blazing colors of the glorious changing of seasons and pray for the changing of the eternal season to come.

As we hear the acorns falling plunk, plunk, plunk on the rooftops and the hoods of cars, let’s pray in turn for the miraculous falling of the Holy Spirit over the multitude of hurting people in our spheres.

May this change in season tune our souls to seek the eternal season to come.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. ~Ecclesiastes 3

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Favoring Fall

With the onset of college football, the first weekend in September, and the return of Pumpkin Spice Lattes (had my first pumpkin spice of the season this morning!) I am pining for the change in season. I want to kick up my cowgirl-booted heels, do-si-do my partner, scour the pumpkin patch for the just right pick with family and friends, and savor the cooler breezes of fall to accompany the fiery orange sunsets.

In short, I am ready to welcome fall.

For my fellow Pinterest users, the one thing I love most about Pinterest is the inspiration that it provides. The beautiful pictures and thoughtful capturing of memories stimulates my creative thought processes. However, Pinterest is the only place that simultaneously has me wanting to eat a Reese’s and run a 5K in the same breath! You ladies know what I am talking about!

When I walk away from a pinning session on Pinterest, I want to be inspired to:

  •  create beauty in my own home with resources that I already have on hand or can acquire cheaply
  •  have ideas to organize my home or feed the hungry bellies in this house
  • capture an idea to write about
  • see the beauty before me and let it conjure thoughts of Home

I always desire to walk away contented that where I am and what I have is enough for me because this is what He has ordained. For me, Pinterest is a tool, not a reflection of my treasures.

Please follow me on Pinterest at LBrookeCooney to view all my boards and especially Fall!

I can’t wait. What about you? What most do you enjoy about the fall? In what ways does the fall point your thoughts toward the Kingdom, towards God? I would love for you to share your thoughts with me. Until Monday…

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