{Life Made Lovely with my Sissy}

My sweet friend, Heather hosts a weekly link up to showcase the lovely in our life.  I love that!  An intentional reminder to enjoy your day, your week, your life.  To embrace and document the sweet moments big and little.

28 years ago God blessed me with one of my very best friends, my sister Jackie!

Being the only girls in what seemed like a sea of boys we were buds growing up.  It wasn't until we both got married and became Mamas that our true friendship blossomed!

We have weathered many storms together and have never left each other's side.  We are completely ridiculous together and laugh harder together than with anyone else, with the exception of our hubby's.  We love each other's kids like they are our own and pray for a day when our little girls that look just like us, will be besties, too!

When we were little Jackie couldn't say sister and ever since we have affectionately called one another Titters.  It sounds funny, but the weight of that word makes me tear up.  It's a reminder of the love only we share for one another and the promise that we will always be there...through thick and thin.

Titters I am so proud to be your sister!  So thankful for every laugh, tear, hug, kiss, memory, boob pinch (sorry TMI, just keeping it real), memory, and even the fights.  Each one has shaped us and our relationship and I am a better person because of it.  I pray this year you run even faster after Jesus with a desire to earnestly serve him.  I pray your marriage continues to build and grow and weather any storm it encounters and come out stronger.  I pray your babes rise up and call you blessed and honor you the way you deserve because of the incredible Mom you are.  And I pray we don't waste one moment in this last year we have together before you move. I love you most and always will!

And here's a little shot of some crafting I was able to accomplish this weekend....by the way huge shout out of thanks to my amazing hubs who left Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon with the babes so I could refresh and have some time to myself.  It was amazing and I highly recommend it!

This is the shirt I made for Jackie's bday gift.

Here's a close up on the flowers.

Hope you enjoyed my lovely and remember to embrace and enjoy yours!

XOXO

Jenni

{cherish, embrace, surrender}

My sister-in-law, Chelle posted this song to her Facebook, when she acknowledged the passing of a young lady, Jennifer Sparks who battled Short Gut, until this past Monday when she met Jesus. Carter also has Short Gut, so this young lady's life affected Sean and Chelle in a very deep way. Please pray for the Sparks Family and hug your littles just a bit harder this weekend.

 

 I have also read some very lovely posts this week and thought I'd share some nuggets of truth.

•  Thankful on a Thursday
• the one word that fixes a broken heart, this broken world
• Mercy I, Mercy II, Mercy III, How to Change The World

Be encouraged and love BIG!

XOXO

Jenni

{Welcome Weekend}

I have been counting down the days to this weekend.  Just one of those weeks. 

Can't wait to make a sticky mess with these guys...

and maybe a little sewing with these goodies...

...some much needed planning and organizing with this...

...but, I may need to tackle my couch...

...oh, and my sink...

...but I will definitely be in good company jamming to the BEST play list to an amazing blog I follow!

So what are YOU doing this weekend!  

Have a great weekend!

XOXO

Jenni

Christmas Shopping Anyone?

One of the lovely (in)courage ladies I follow on twitter and on her fun blog posted a GREAT deal earlier today that I took advantage of and want to offer you, too.

I joined an online shopping site, called One Kings Lane and was able to earn $15 credit towards my first purchase.  I was able to select an item for $15, making it free and only paid $7.95 to ship it to me. 

 

These items are gorgeous quality pieces that would be perfect Christmas presents.  In turn if you purchase from the link I provide I will also earn another $15 credit.  You can then of course invite your friends and family to do the same and earn the same.  New products are offered daily, so act quick to snag your favorite piece!  Happy Shopping!

Giveaway Winners!!!

I promise I didn't forget about you gals, I just forgot to umm, publish the post...so sorry!  

For those of you who entered I think you will be happy to know everyone WON!  Woot, woot!

Since Family Christian Bookstores were so generous to give me all three packages, I figured I would do the same and give them all away!  So two winners will receive a 25 count package each of cards and the remaining five who entered will win five each!  I love how God does that...evenly distributed to share the love of encouragement with more people! So without further ado...

...the first winner is #10, Meg!

AND

...the second winner is #14, Janet!

So I will actually need ALL your mailing address' emailed to me at carlisleclanconversation@hotmail.com to get those in the mail today to you.  

Thanks so much for participating in my first giveaway!

Be blessed and encourgaed, 

Jenni

Encourage One Another

Today is the National Day of Encouragement...what a great idea!  I had no idea that such a day existed until I started reading the daily blogs provided by the website (in)courage. Each contributor has blessed and encouraged me every time.  I love the idea of a group of women with different giftings working towards the common purpose of glorifying the Lord through encouraging other women.

The website just celebrated a year of (in)couraging and a 30 Day giveaway.  I was able to snag some encouragement cards from Dayspring's new  Hope and Encouragement line from one of these giveaways.  (in)courage gave them away to encourage their readers to encourage others.  Of the ten cards I received I wanted to highlight one cards participant, my friend Kat.  Kat is the author of the blog Inspired To Action. And her blog does just that, inspires others into action.  Specifically Moms.  She shows you how to take an ordinary life and make it extraordinary.  She doesn't concentrate on crafts and recipes, she concentrates on your heart and fulfilling the purposes God has called us to.  I love it and I love her!  I pray the card I choose for her shows her the impact she has made on my life, although I am sure it will pale in comparison to what she has given to me!

Dayspring also offered a free encouragement card at their many retailers through today to also motivate us to encourage others.  When I went to pick up mine, my local retailer said I was the only person who had come to request one. So instead of offering me one card they offered me THREE packages.

My guess is there are anywhere from 25-50 cards in each pack.  I love cards, but this is too many cards for even me!  So I want to celebrate today with my very first giveaway!  Here are the details:

Two winners, with each one receiving one pack of the card image you see above.  You are free to share or send all of them out to encourage others!

You can submit one entry for each of the following, but in order to qualify you must leave a comment on this post for each entry.

Entry One:  Follow my blog, by selecting the follow me button.
Entry Two: Follow Kat's blog Inspire To Action
Entry Three: Follow the (in)courage  blog
Entry Four: Tweet this giveaway & include @jennilynncar in the tweet
Entry Five:  Blog this giveaway

Now truth be told I will have no idea if you complete entry two or three, but it will be up to you to follow the honor system.  I promise following either blog will truly be a blessing!  Giveaway ends Tuesday, September 14th at midnight CST and I will announce the winners Wednesday, September 15th.  Good Luck and go out there and encourage someone today!

"Encourage one another and build each other up."

1 Thessalonians 5:11 NIV

Be blessed and incouraged!

Jenni

oh. my. word.

I fumed.  I cried.  I laughed.  I learned.  All today...being a Mommy is funny like that. 

Some weird coincidences have been happening.

My daughter's best friend happens to be my best friend's daughter.  My best friend mentioned the other day that her daughter hasn't had a chance to email my daughter back.  Bella participates on an online community with stuffed animals called Webkinz and she emails her friends (she/we knows all of them in real life) back and forth.  We monitor her time on the kid's computer that's in her room and it has a filter and is password protected.

I have a facebook account and randomly get invites from people I don't know. Being the people pleaser I am and wanting to insure I don't avoid a long lost friend if I am unsure of who it is I'll send them a quick email to inquire on their identity.

Two things happened.  First a picture less facebook user showed up in my friends suggestion list with my daughter's name on it.  I investigated.  I find several people with that name and the picture less user has no identifying info, so I forget it.  Then another facebook user, again picture less asks to be my friend who conveniently has my first name and my sister's last name.  Hmmm, email sent...who are you?  They reply saying they went to my high school.  Annoyed that it was probably a joke from someone I know, I ignore it and decline the request.

This morning when I logged into Blogger I noticed a new follower. (I did not get all excited, because that doesn't matter to me...no, not me.)  Only to find the new follower is someone who happens to have the same name as my daughter.  I am of course so annoyed that someone is messing with me.  I click on the user to see who they are following.  Umm, just so happens said person is following my sister-in-law and another local home schooler's blog.  Really, this is not happening.

Long story short, after a bit of lying...yes LYING she, as in MY daughter admitted to having an email account and that she used it to open a FACEBOOK ACCOUNT and a BLOGGER account.

Ya'll SHE was the person emailing me saying that she went to my high school!

She created a pretty cute blog and had ALREADY posted a blog post!

Say what?

So, then I start looking at her email account and she has emailed several accounts with her name as the email address'.  This child...when it was all said and done...had created SEVEN email accounts, THREE Facebook accounts and ONE blogger account.

Let's just say she is grounded from all things media and digital for the rest of her life an undetermined amount of time.

Before I get reamed, I have already played the blame game.  We have gone to the trouble of securing her computer, that I never imagined she would sneak and use mine!  I also want to explain on behalf of my friend, that we had discussed opening the kiddos an account to work on their typing skills, spelling, letter writing, etc. so she just assumed I was aware.

Sadly, while it was a very frustrating situation I found myself wondering if I should be angry or impressed.  I was floored that she knew that much about the computer to do all that!  In the end it was a sobering moment as a Mommy to remember that I can't protect them from everything.  I am so THANKFUL that she didn't share any personal information.  Please let this serve as a lesson that we all need to be oh so careful with our kiddos, especially when dealing with the internet.

Now, if you'll excuse me Calgon is calling my name.  Tomorrow is another day, tomorrow is another day, tomorrow is another day!