International Women’s Day

So, here’s the “scoop”…women are amazing!  We were each created with such an amazing role to fill in this world.  Each one of us has a purpose and the ability to achieve that purpose.  But we wouldn’t be here without some extraordinary men.

For example: if Christopher Columbus didn’t cross the ocean to find a new land, well, none of these “feminist”, “girls run the world” women of today’s modern age would have the freedom to so strongly voice their opinions on how much we “don’t need men”.  Also, the women of today wouldn’t be alive without men because they are half of the reason we were each born into this world (you know what I mean)!  Men and women alike have such important and specific roles to fill in life.  YES the world has put women in a box throughout history saying we can and cannot do such and such; there are stereo types, and horrible or unnecessary things that happen in this world to the all different women, but we must remember too that this world is fallen and messed up and twisted.

If we truly desire to be a people, a nation, of equality, then we must learn how to work together, how to encourage each other in our passions, and how to live out the individual role and purpose that has been set before us as men and women.  At the end of the day, once you strip everything away, we are quite equal and have one goal; to honor God.

God has created us, male and female He created us (Genesis 5:1-2), to honor Him and do His will.  Men have their “job/place” and so do women, but that does not mean we as women should be in bondage to men, that we should have lesser opportunities, or that we can do nothing!  On the contrary, because of Christ we are capable of anything by His strength!  I don’t want to be empowered by women because women fail; humans fail!  They are not dependable.  But I do want to be empowered by Jesus Christ, so that I may come alone side other women, and encourage them and show them the greatest man and greatest love of all; Jesus.

There’s my two cents on the day…happy international women’s day!  I am proud to be a woman, and so grateful for the amazing strong women in my life past, presently, and to come, and I am so thankful for the love of Christ for each of us women and the very individual and important role each of us have to advance His kingdom in ways a man cannot; but also I thank you, Lord, for the strong men who have paved the road before us, and the women who supported and helped them, so we now have the freedom to speak, to dream, to pursue a career and our passion in life and to have a voice which can be heard.

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“But, ladies, you must answer too, what would we do with out ’em?…”

(song from Kiss Me Kate ‘I Hate Men’)

This post is dedicated to the amazing women I am blessed to call my mother and sisters.  I love you all and thank you for being amazing examples, influences, and encouragement in my life. ❤

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~ “…When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.  Male and female he created them..” Genesis 5:1-2

~ “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.  She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” Proverbs 31:25

~ “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” Luke 1:45

~ “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your words; my soul knows it very well.” Psalm 139:14

~ “You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.” Song of Solomon 4:7

 

Jennifer~

Thankful #2: Fellowship

November 2nd, 2017…

I am so thankful for my family and friends.  My family is my group of friends most of the time, but that’s easier said for me because I have five brothers and six sisters!  Truly I love that I can call my family my friends because, generally speaking, family is forever. ❤  I am thankful for each one of my siblings, and my parents, individually as well as together; it is the strongest team and support system.  Also I am so thankful for my friends who are not blood related.  Many have left and I’ve had to let go, but to those who have stayed…wow!  I am so thankful and grateful them and for their different perspectives, encouragement, support, advice, company, getting together, study, and all the other things that my family can possibly never offer!

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Thank you, sweet Jesus, for my family!  I thank you for my parents and for their guidance and love, for the freedom they have given me to follow the desires I have for the things I want to do in this life, and for their wisdom that allows me to humble myself in knowing there is so much road to travel in my life before I can declare to truly “get” or understand anything.  Thank you for my siblings, for the additions to our family, and for the future additions as well; I am thrilled to find out who gets to be a part of this family that I love.  I thank you for the friends throughout my life.   Thank you for those who have stayed as well as those who haven’t.  Thank you for the lessons I’ve learned from both parties and continue to learn more and more from.  I life up to you, Father, my family and friends, and Lord, I give them to you completely, for you are mighty to save, you love us ultimately, and you are the only one who can truly help any of us, protect us, and make us into who you created us to be.  May we all be inspired by each other to seek just that; who you created us to be and why you’ve put us on this earth, in each others lives.  You are magnificent!  I love you, Lord!!  Thank you again for these people I know and those I have yet to meet, for the fellowship they offer, and the life we get to experience together.  May the bonds of those meant to be become stronger and unbreakable, may we stand up, encourage and help each other, be faithful, true and accountable to one another, and not let our brothers and sisters isolate themselves no matter how uncertain, scary or hopeless life becomes.  Make us strong so we can shine brightly together for you!  Thank you.  In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

 

Jenny~

Saturday, June 4th

Aloha!  So, already I’ve missed one day, but I have good reasons!  Yesterday, June 3rd, I woke up at 5am with horrible stomach pain.  Turns out a snuck some dairy into my body from the day before, little to my knowledge, and I was throwing up all morning which left me feeling very weak and pathetic all day Friday!  SHOUT OUT to my amazing coworker who was able to last minute fill in for me.  Thank you SO much!

Anyway, that was my Friday.  I do not wish the pain of lactose intolerance on anyone.  It is awful!

Last year I posted something (one or two posts) each month except December, and this year I posted in January then missed the four months between January and June!!!  Just coming to that realization and I can’t believe it!  No it’s not a big deal, but how can I call myself a blogger if I took a four month hiatus?  Sometimes you just need a break, but it’s not like this blog is taxing on my life whatsoever!  But here I am now, so I will stop writing about how I’ve not been blogging.

Okay, I lied…one thing about not blogging is that I take TONS of pictures with the intent to blog about them and I don’t, therefore I have TONS of pictures of past events or ideas that wouldn’t make much sense to post now and I have to decide whether to delete them or not.  Okay, now I’ll move on.

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I’m going to “brag” on a few of my siblings real quick…

This kid is losing all of his teeth!  It’s crazy!  Two front teeth are gone, one bottom tooth fell out yesterday, and a few more have come out!  What a stinker.

Mr. Cael never smiles for pictures, so my friends, this is a very RARE picture!  He is such a little man; tough, serious, sensitive, adventurous, caring, animal whisperer, thinker.  He’s so cute, but if he were to read that I would be chased around the kitchen!  He prefers not to be referred to as cute, as hard as it is not to say.

John is a creature enthusiast.  This lovely chameleon is Emerald.  She is awesome.  I love her.  John is currently adding onto a small salt water aquarium tank he has and it is full of crazy creatures!  He is very knowledgeable about his creatures, though sometimes he thinks he’s a little too smart, but John is a very gentle and sensitive young man, with great ideas and good intentions, and he has a blog he’s also working on called John’s Pet Basket: Reef Snippets.  Check it out!

Oh, what a heart throb!  This one is going to have all the young ladies falling over themselves.  Again, another sensitive, dear young man.  Eli is so thoughtful, helpful, caring, and smart!  Very good at figuring out how things work and putting things back together after taking them apart.  He is getting way too tall though!  I am very short (5 foot 1 1/2 inches), so having all my younger brother growing sky high over me is very strange.  Eli just got a lizard, but I don’t remember what kind he is.  Sniffleton is his name, if I remember correctly (he just got him 2-3 days ago).  All of my brothers are outdoors men, especially this guy.  No shoes and all!

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Well, I am going to work in my room.  I need to go outside and breath some fresh air!  We’re working on moving bedrooms around so I’ve got a lot of work to do.  Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed weekend!  Make sure you tell your family you love them!

Much love,

Jenny~

Crisp, Cool, Colorful…

Yep!  That’s all I have to say!

Happy October! ❤  The best time of the year…FALL!!!

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So, I’m in Korea!  Yes…I’ve been here for eleven (11) days and will be here for five (5) more days…yep!  That’s the “surprise”, travels and adventures I had mentioned. 🙂

We’ve been sight seeing.

Buying too many cute things.

Eating yummy food.

Seeing new things.

And enjoying sweet, sweet, family. ❤

Having such a fun time seeing a new place and observing a new culture.  It’s fascinating and eye opening and very exciting!

Looking forward to being home there, because home is where the heart is.  Or, wherever your heart is, is home. ❤

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Happy October!  Much love!

Jenny~

Jenny~

Jeremiah 17:7-8 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

 

Dad, I hope your trip has been AMAZING so far and I wish you the happiest father’s day even though you are away. ❤ I love you more than any words I can think up, or any post I share might portray. There are a few bible verses that you hold dear to your heart, but whenever I think of you the one below comes to mind.

 

Psalm 127:5 “Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them (children)! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.”

 

MUCH love to you and I cannot wait to see you next week!

Family Photos!

So, I was going through my drafts and came across this unfinished draft/post that I was going to post two years ago, I believe (these pics were taken in 2013 when I cut my hair into a pixie) and anyway I never posted it so, without further ado, please enjoy these family pictures of the Barger Family 2013 (DO NOT COPY THESE PICTURES, thank you)

Eli, John and Cael

   

Esme and Sylvie

   

Joshua and Jennifer (me with a pixie!)

Skylar (who is in Korea)

The Miller’s (without baby River…Bess, Davis and Evelyn who are also in Korea)

  

Evelyn and Bess, my dearest big sister and my precious niece!

   

Titus and Sarah, my beautiful sister and adorable nephew!

The Wetzel’s (Adam, Sarah and Titus…and there is an addition to their family coming Summer 2015!)

Group pic!

  

Crazy, but handsome, Barger boys (and Miller and Wetzel’s)

  

Fabulous, amazing, and wonderful “Barger Babes”…haha, just kidding.

Look at us smoking hot Charlie’s Angels. Ha ha! 🙂

  

More sister pics.  I love my sisters.

I love this pic.  Three different colored eyes; brown, green and blue…I miss those blue eyes *cough cough*

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So there you go!  Merry Christmas!  Happy New Year!  That’s my amazingly wonderful family who I mostly love and sometimes just like.  No, in all seriousness I adore my family and literally pray quite often to God and thank Him for providing me with such an amazing family!  We may go through difficult times and situations, but we love each other and we grow together and overcome things together through Jesus Christ who through His strength all things can be done (Philippians 4:13)

Thank you for stopping by!  I have a snowy post to share which I will probably post tomorrow so stay tuned.  Much love and God bless you and keep you safe and warm during this chilly winter weather.  Brrr!

Jenny~

A Going Away is Such Sweet Sorrow

Here are some pictures from our last day(s) with the Miller’s and Skylar before they left for South Korea.  We miss you guys so much!  Please enjoy!

Evvie and I both had pink sunglasses, oh yeah!

She is such a good girl and usually very smiley, but it’s hard to get her to smile on camera…

Unless you make funny faces as I am in the picture above.

 

Oh yeah!  We have a baby Alpaca! 🙂  His name is Appa, named after the flying sky bison in Avatar: The Last Airbender, and he is SO cute!  Look at his big eyes!  (I’ll post more about him later)

Titus is getting so big!  He is pretty much impossible to get a picture of…stubborn toddlers!  lol! 🙂

Baby River who has no problem with packing on the pounds!  Look at his cute sleepy face.  He looks kind of angry actually.

Aunt “Bucky” and Evelyn after a bubble bath.  Squeaky clean!

See?  Look at that chin!  It’s doubled!  And not just because he’s yawning…look at the pic below.

Aunt Esme and little River (chubby as can be).

Okay, I tried my best to get a picture of Evvie and Titus.

 

See?  Impossible!  But he’s so cute! 🙂

He he…I tried and that’s all that matters!

Aunt Sarah and River, or “Rivey” as Evvie would say.

Uncle Eli was making River laugh and smile and it was SO cute!  I was holding him on the sofa afterwards and he fell asleep and then we heard this tummy giggle and looked down to see River smiling and laughing in his sleep.  It was so precious!

Ha!  She finally smiled after Sylvie gave her a lick of frosting!

And here she smiled even bigger after the second lick of frosting!  Good job, Aunt Sylvie.

Sylvie and Riv.

So, I have a picture of me (with long hair!) holding baby Evelyn and baby Titus last year, and my goal was to reenact that picture with Evvie, River and Ty, but Evvie did not want to join in.  Little Stinky Lyn.

Me and Skylar!  You can tell from this picture, and probably all the others, that we were all exhausted and ready for bed even though nobody wanted to go to sleep.  I miss them!

And here is another family picture!  The one I posted on my last post was the best one that we got, but I thought I’d share another one.  I especially like Ben’s face in this one. 🙂

After a long hard evening and week and month, they left on Thursday morning, almost a whole week ago, headed across the seas to a totally new place filled with unfamiliar things, but I hope and pray that it will be an amazing adventure even though it was so hard to say goodbye.  It is not goodbye, it is See ya later, Alligator! 🙂

Farewell for now Bessie, Davis, Evvie, River and Skylar!  We will see you all soon and stay in touch as much as possible!!!  I hope the first week in Korea has been amazing and I hope you are able to take in each day one day at a time, enjoying each and every moment.  Stay safe and stay in touch!  You are all in our prayers and we love you SO much; more then words can say.  Can’t wait to see you next summer!  We miss you SO much!

Much love and God bless,

Jenny and Family~

(P.S. Please don’t copy these pictures.  If you would like a copy of them, I will email it to you.)

Oh My Gosh!

It’s December 21st!  Oh my gosh!

I know there is no need to apologize, but I feel horrible that there wasn’t much going on on Jennafifi this year! 😦  I’m sorry!  Not to make excuses, but my mind was all over the place this year jumping from one thing to the next, thinking hard, and yet so dull and not inspired.  I need to work on that.

Well, Christmas is in four days which is unbelievable to me, but I am excited. 🙂  This time of the year is always nice and fun even if it seems to come so quickly.  I really do love Christmas!

Goodness.  I had so many “plans” to do stuff or get things done or started this month, and now there are 10 days left of December and I feel like I’ve slept through it all!  Why does it seem like I’ve been such a slug?!

Last night I got to visit my Grandparents and my Uncle and Aunt.  It was so nice to see them all!  I had wonderful conversations with my Aunt Peggy and Uncle Larry and got to see Uncle Paul and it was very nice!  It was wonderful to see them during the holidays.

There are some pictures that I’m loading onto the computer to share on my blog SOON!  I know I say that all the time, but it has been extremely hard posting and sharing pictures when my own personal computer is not in use!  Very difficult!

I hope this Christmas season has brought much joy and happiness into your hearts so far and I wish you the merriest Christmas!  Remember our Saviors birth and don’t forget to tell your family, friends, and loved ones how much you care about them.

God bless,

Jenny~

P.S. This is my 190th post! wow…

Monday

The wind is blowing, the leaves are falling to the ground, the sun is setting, and the temperature is perfect.

October never fails to bring around the gentle fall weather.  You go through the end of August and into September wondering if the coolness and changing colors of fall will ever come, and then once you get into the first week of October, it finally happens.

The sun was shining through the trees and the leaves were falling from the trees like snowflakes; silent and in great number.  The mail came so I went to get it and had a nice walk down our long driveway to the mailbox taking deep, slow, breaths of the fresh, crisp air.  It was heavenly!  The woods stand out in the fall and I always want to go sit in a big tree just me, my journal, a book and the wind.

Even though daylight savings is over the days still seem to last longer because you want to wake up earlier to enjoy as much of the cool day as possible.  The sunset is still and will forever be my favorite part of the day.  Not that I want the day to end necessarily, but the grandeur and vibrant colors and intense rays of the sunset are one of the most eye catching and beautiful things to me.  It makes me very happy whenever I get to watch the sun set.

Monday, today, was magnificent.  Nothing out of the ordinary happened. We didn’t go anywhere or do really anything, except go outside and that’s what made it magnificent.  Absolutely, marvelously, magnificent.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring?  What troubles or struggles, lessons or studies, happy things or celebrations will come about?  Or what kind of weather there will be?  When will the sun rise in the morning and set in the evening?  I wonder.  But I need to not wonder so much about tomorrow because then I forget to live in the moment; enjoying today.  It is so easy to not live in the moment.  That’s something I wish to work on; living in the moment and enjoying my life.

God has been so good and has blessed me with a wonderful loving family.  Parents who love and provide for us.  Brothers and sisters to talk to and play with.  Friends to confide in and trust.  More material things that we even need, and food to sustain us.  And able bodies to bless His Kingdom and bright eyes to watch the seasons change and the sun set. 🙂  I do not mean to brag, but I am very thankful to the Lord for many things.  Mainly for when I go through times where I am lost or confused and I feel as if my life is meaningless and dull and I’m about to give up on another thing, but then I know that everything is okay because I am comforted and loved by a Savior, and I have people in my life who encourage me to do great things and to learn and I know, even though it’s hard, I never have to be afraid.

Jenny~