Fall Reflections

 We were able to spend a few absolutely gorgeous days at Clear Creek State Park last month (accommodations thanks to my parents, once again, and weather, thanks to GOD!).  It was warm, and wonderful to get away! 

Our attempt at a family picture!

Skipping rocks...even Alliyah was trying!  The Clarion River was very low.

Happy 14th Anniversary!  My parents offered to keep the kids and let us go out to dinner, but we were just having too much fun to leave the kids and go...who wants to skip a campfire and mountain pies with the kiddos?

The next day we took a little trip down Corbett (my maiden name : )) Road  and went to Beartown Rocks.

Zach was fearless!  Climbing anywhere he could.

  

Wonder where he gets that? (Frank is on the left side of the picture...on the side of the rock!)  This was the PERFECT climbing rock!  Frank said it even had natural hand holds in the holes! 

  

Kaity let me take a few pictures (a rare thing!) ...this was one of my favorites...even if it's a little blurry.

  

Here is Liah...sitting on her "baby rock"...all the rocks were Mommies or Daddies or babies!

  

Flash forward to senior pictures...(really only 5+ years away! UGH!)

  

Elli helping Liah climb some rocks...♥ sisters ♥

  

Nathaniel the explorer

♥  Father - Son time ♥

  

A couple of the family pyromaniacs...  : )

  

Our last morning there we went for a hike on "The River Trail"...Breathtaking!

  

Reading the map...trying to decide if we had time to go the long way...unfortunately, we didn't.  : (

  

The girls...posing for another picture!! : )

God blesses us so richly...we need only to open our eyes to see the beauty, the splendor of His creation!

Reflections

Wow, how we've changed in one year! I've just been thinking about the changes in the last year...how the kids have grown, the things we've gone through. This is a picture of Alliyah last September...she still looks like a baby! At the bottom of the post is a picture from last month. She's a little girl now...


Here are Nathaniel, Kaity and Zach waiting for the bus last year...just beginning 2nd, 5th and 4th grades...

And little Elli waiting for the bus for the first day of Kindergarten! Seems like so long ago, yet just like yesterday too...

The four oldest at Fall Fest...

My attempt at a picture of the 5 of them last fall...

And then we morph ahead to this year...

First day of 5th, 6th, 1st and 3rd grade already!!!

From our vacation to the beach at the end of August...

And my "big girl" sunbather...she's growing so fast! They all are.

My devotion today talked about "always abounding" in your role as mother and that motherhood is a labor of love...not in the sense of physical labor, but of the weariness we experience as we "do" our job as mother. Abounding- "to excel, to exceed, to increase, to be in excess, be better, enough and to spare." God has called us not to just "do" our job as mother but to abound in it! When we feel weary as we are doing the many things that mother's do, the words of God are there to comfort and encourage us. "I will not forget your work and labor of love." Hebrews 6:10. God promises to give us the strength for each day. "not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy." (Colossians 1:11- The Message) What an encouragement as we endeavor to abound in our God-given role as mother.
So as I look back over the last year, there are many days I felt weary and that I was just "doing" my mother role. I pray that God will remind me of the great reward and joy ahead as I press on to be an abounding mother to my 5 blessings. My mothering ministry is not in vain...there will be reward. : )
And as I look ahead to the next year and all the challenges and blessings it holds, I AM encouraged.

"Therefore, my beloved brethern, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." I Corinthians 15:58




This is a picture of the monarch butterfly we watched change from a caterpillar last year. A new beginning...a new attitude...a new view...