A New Normal.

Good morning, friends!
I am writing to you at 10 AM. That is right, 10:00 in theeee morning. Two weeks ago this early in the day I was in the midst of my deepest sleep. But now, as Jarryd and I are going through some job/schedule changes, my wakeup is 6 AM.

The absolute worst part about getting up this early is that throughout the day I'll go through these hour long periods of total exhaustion. I'll sit on the couch in the oddest of positions and won't be able to move because my mind is in a fog and I can't think straight.
I really have to go to the bathroom...I need to get up NOW....nah....I think I'll just lie here for another hour or so and suffer.

The absolute best part about getting up this early is the morning news and talkshows on TV. I was seriously missing out on life before. I thoroughly enjoy drinking my creme brûlée coffee whilst listening to Rachael Ray yelling at her audience (in a fashion that only Rachael Ray can pull off) and the six, yes SIX, ladies of The View bickering at one another.

Do they really need six co-hosts? I mean, is it necessary? Although, I am super thrilled with the two newest co-hosts who are both believers in the Lord. Firstly, I am a huuuuge fan of Candace Cameron Bure. She is like super mom to me; confession, I am even a subscriber to her daughters Youtube channel. I am all about the Bure family. :P

Secondly, on yesterday's show Paula Faris explained what it meant to be a Born-Again Believer and she totally nailed it. It makes me so happy to see these two strong Christian women standing up for their beliefs on national television.

Anyway, in a week my work schedule will be changing from 3pm-8pm back to a 6am-2pm schedule. Lord, help me. For most, these are the dream hours; for me, not so much. At work what happens from 6-2 is that I have to prepare both breakfast and lunch, not to mention prepping ingredients for the next day's meals. It's so stressful and I'm not really looking forward to it. I mean, it's unfortunate because in general my least favourite meal of the day is breakfast, so it's hard putting love into a meal that I don't actually enjoy as much as the others.

BUT the upside to this schedule change is that Jarryd and I will have our evenings free. Meaning, we can actually make plans with anyone and everyone of whom we choose. I think this will make my new work schedule all worth it in the end. :)

Gotta go, it's time for The View.
Ciao!

Culinary Tip: Incorporating Frozen Blueberries into Muffins

Have you ever found an awesome blueberry muffin recipe,

pulled your--almost--forsaken stash of frozen blueberries from the freezer,

gently folded them into the muffin batter,

and felt quizzical pangs as the batter turned from a beautiful creamy golden to an unwelcome gloomy gray/green?

You probably thought to yourself: hmm, maybe as the batter gets baked under high temperature this unfortunate colour will magically disappear into thin, hot oven air.

So, you bake it until the timer dings.

You *cross your fingers*.

You take a bite, only to find that the whole muffin has turned greenish-gray

It's one of the most frustrating things to me, because it simply just does not look like the blueberry muffins you would find at a bakery. With my perfectionist tendencies, (a bittersweet personality, really), I not only want my food to taste good, but I want it to look good!

Yes the greenish-gray blueberry muffins still taste delicious, but they don't look as delicious as they potentially could, (...unless you're aiming for greenish-gray look...for some odd reason).

And remember, it's just a common fact that you don't solely eat with your mouth (taste), you eat with your nose (smell) and your EYES (sight).

So how do the bakeries do it? How do they achieve those perfect, golden blueberry muffins even while using frozen blueberries?

Truthfully, I have never baked blueberry muffins at a bakery, so I have no idea how they do it.
But, I do know how I do it! :)

1. Put frozen blueberries in a colander, place it in the sink and run it under cold water. Do this until they thaw and the purpley-pink juice ceases to drain.

2. Lay the blueberries out onto a paper towel/cloth and pat to dry.

3. Place blueberries in a bowl, sprinkle with flour, and toss them around until all of the blueberries are evenly coated with the flour.

4. Gently fold them into your muffin batter and continue on normally with your recipe.

As you can see from my photo above, this method seriously works! Also, hindsight teaches us alot of things; and right now, hindsight is teaching me that I should have added way more blueberries than the recipe called for!

Anyway, I hope this helped some of you to feel confident in using up some of those freezer blueberries leftover from the summer! Yay for no more greenish-gray muffins! I'll eat to that ;)

Our New Home Tour (Apartment #2)

After a month of dwelling in our new apartment, it is finally time to share some photos of the place that I just loooove to come home to! <3

Selfie with our new apartment in the back! :)

For those of you who don't know, Jarryd and I's very first apartment was an above-garage, privately owned apartment. When we signed the lease and moved in after we got married in June of 2014, we were THRILLED to move in. Finally a place of our very own! We were very thankful to God for providing us a home with cheap rent, which suited our needs perfectly within a season of endless job hunting and a humble lifestyle of one income.

If you're interested, you can click here to see the tour of our newlywed apartment!

What we have learned is that your newlywed home is a fantastic time to realize what you want and DON'T want in your next home. It's not like you intentionally scope out your apartment and make a list of things you absolutely despise. It is something you realize as the weeks turn into months. Certain experiences just begin to build up and build up and eventually you just cannot take it anymore. You NEED to move out. A few prime examples for us was the poor insulation, torn window screens, and the endless stream of bugs. Oh my goodness, just writing out that previous sentence gets me all riled up.

So anyway, enough about that old place. By the grace of God, we were able to find the perfect apartment for us:

• Closer to both of our work places.
• Brand-spankin'-new. Built this year (January 2015)!
• Quiet area surrounded by lots of trees.
• Super close to so many shops and restaurants (although, still too far from Target, in my books).
• An awesome management landlord team. (We all know how important that is!)
• Brand new, energy-efficient appliances, and central air. (This is a HUGE deal)!!
• Friendly neighbours.
• Breezeway entries.
• Our apartment is on the second floor, which honestly was a deal-breaker for me. You couldn't pay me to live in the first floor of an apartment complex.

With that said, it's time for the big reveal! Forewarning: the photos that I am about to show you were taken in the second week of August, when we had literally just finished unpacking, putting things in their rightful places, and making it look squeaky clean! So furniture and decor-wise, the photos will portray the bare minimum of what we own. (So prepare to see alot of clean, white walls, haha)!

But now, almost a month later we have added a few things here and there, which actually have made a huge difference; and I cannot wait to show you those updates one of these days (not today).

But for now, here we goooooo:

Here is our humble entrance (the middle door is our front door).

When you open the door to the left of our front door, you will find our laundry closet! Since this photo we have bought ourselves a washer for only $299, brand new too!

To the right of our front door, is our coat closet. YES. A coat closet. To me, there's nothing worse than having all of your gross, dirty shoes on display. I am more than happy to hide them away here. :)

The grand view of the kitchen.

I love our new kitchen, so much. It has plenty of counter space, cabinet storage, and having an island is great. And yes, that office chair is a makeshift bar stool, for now. :P

Our little coffee corner, as I like to call it. Unfortunately, the mechanical closet to the right blocks alot of the natural sunlight coming in, so it gets a little dark at times. 

Here is what it looks like when the sun has set and the kitchen lights need to be turned on. Also, new placemats are perfect for an island!

My FAVOURITE FAVOURITE FAVOURITE part of our kitchen, an actual dishwasher. When we moved in, Jarryd said "Yay! Now we have two dishwashers!" *looks at me* How does he get away with comments like that? :P But for real, having a dishwasher has changed my life. 

A different view. Also, our sink has a garburator which I love. It's not only practical, but it's fun to use too!

There's alotta love goin' on in this kitchen. :)

Butter dish, sugar bowl, and salt & pepper shakers. Some of my favourite little knicky-knackers.

The wooden white organizer I bought at Home Goods, and it's sooo handy. It's the perfect place to put all of our mail, pens, keys, and apparently wine corks? 

A larger view of the main room.

Our living room! I can't wait to show you the updated version!

A nice, big window. :) 

As you can see, I love my Tiffany blue.

Our makeshift tv stand. And yes, I am watching Property Brothers. We just got cable so I'm practically glued to HGTV. (His hair is awful, right?) 

Little knick knacks.

So many books and frames with nowhere to go at the time. It was quite an eye sore.  

Artwork that Jarryd surprisingly loved.

Here is the view from our living room window. One of my favourite things is how much of the sky we can see from our place. It definitely has an open feel to it. It also helps that the buildings are beautiful!

Here is our guest bathroom! I would call it a "Powder Room", but it actually has a shower tub! It's placed right next to the guest bedroom, which is fantastic for our future guests to enjoy. :) 

My collection of hotel shampoos, body washes, and conditioners. :) Something I love about having two bathrooms is that the guest bathroom is ALWAYS clean, and when you have unexpected company you don't have to stress about how dirty the bathroom might be. 

The guest bedroom! At the time this room was a total chaos, but now I have it all organized and it's ready for a bed! :) 

The guest bedroom features a huuuuge closet! Bonus!! Finally somewhere to put all of our suitcases.

Our bedroom. I am just in love with this room. I bought brand new bedding (comforter set from Kmart for $48, and sheet set from Target). The sheets are my dream Tiffany blue colour!! And this room is just sooo bright, I love it!

So cozy :)

Bedside table with new lamps from Target.

I'm a huge fan of having wedding photos beside the bed.

The view into our ensuite bathroom and walk-in closet.

Our walk-in closet. It has never been a main priority for me to have a walk-in closet, I'd much rather have other things. But I gotta say, it's quite nice to have all of this space.

So many colours and patterns.

Our bathroom. It is such a luxury to have a sink with cabinet storage underneath. Finally, a place for all of the cleaning products, toilet paper, hair products, ect.

Yeah...this photo is a month old and even now this situation is still going on! I just don't know where to put it! 

And our shower tub!

I hope you enjoyed this photo tour, and we would looooove to have you stay with us in our guest bedroom! :)

Don't Stop The Madness.

"All I hear is what they're selling me
That God is love, he isn't suffering
And what you need's a little faith and prosperity
But, oh my God, I know there's more than this
If you promise pain it can't be meaningless
So make me poor if that's the price for freedom

Don't stop the madness
Don't stop the chaos
Don't stop the pain surrounding me
Don't be afraid, Lord, to break my heart
If it brings me down to my knees."
I LOVE this song by Tenth Avenue North.
Christianity does not equal prosperity. If that were the case, all non-believers would be in constant suffering and all believers would be successful (all by an earthly standard, of course).

Jesus, the one who died on the cross for our sins, the one who made a way for salvation, SUFFERED. If He, a man encompassed in perfection, suffered, then how can we not?
But like the song, said, the pain that is promised to us is not meaningless. 

"Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him" -James 1:12

How amazing!

Identity.

It has been one of those days...one of those days where my mind is just feeding me lie after lie. Is it my mind, is it my surroundings/the fallen world in which we live? Is it Satan?

I think that because of Satan, I live in a fallen world, a world in which Satan can so easily tempt and seduce the evil desires of my mind.

Ugh, this is heavy stuff right? But it is real life! "To sin or not to sin" is a choice I'm making on a second-to-second basis.

I don't even know how much of it I want to get into, but here goes: I struggle with my identity, ALL. OF. THE. TIME.

So often I'm wrapped up in: I'm from this place, I went to this school, I majored in this subject, I lived here, but now I live here, I am married, I have this many friends, I do this as a hobby, I am REALLY good at this, ect.

There are some days, or moments, when I am feeling so satisfied and impressed by this identity I have created. Like, "wow, I am so proud of myself and who I have become". Graduating school did that to me, getting married did that to me, getting a new job did that to me, moving to a new apartment did that to me, ect.

I will feel content and satisfied...UNTIL, someone else tells me something exciting and thrilling about their own "identity"...

*Cue the horrible feelings of jealousy* <----All I want is for you to go away!

Everyone has a certain temptation that continually nips at them and mine would have to be jealousy. I hate admitting it. I absolutely do, but it is true.

Which is WHY, I am posting this. Through prayer and strength that only Jesus can give me, I am making a conscious effort to pursue my own identity. NOT the identity that I listed before, the one that is based on my own achievements and such. I am going to focus on my true identity:

I am a child of God. I am a friend of God. I am a citizen of Heaven. I am chosen by God. I am forgiven. I am blameless in His sight. I can bring glory to God. I am a new creation. I am victorious!

To help keep me on track I am starting this daily devotional by Joyce Meyers:

And the whole reason why I wrote this blog entry, other than to encourage others, was that by making it public, I could be held accountable to actually keep up with this devotional.

I just don't spend enough time with Jesus and I need to!

Did any of this make sense? At all?

I just want to send the message that yes, where I'm from, where I went to school, who I married, ect., is a huge part of who I am today as a human being. It is what makes me recognizable...it defines me in an earthly societal way. BUT it is not my true, eternal identity. My human achievement identity is not where I want to put my confidence in, (because when I do that, I am constantly a slave to myself), rather I want to put my confidence in the One who created me: God! He is my identity!

Truthfully, just writing this blog entry made me feel better already. It was such a good reminder of WHO I really am. Well, I'm off to read my devotional! Thanks for reading! :)

With love, Jenny.

Mom & Dad.

I live in Maryland, USA, and my parents live in central Canada...and I just skyped with them for 4+ hours. Well, it was more like I skyped with both of them for 2 hours, and then my Dad went off to get his beauty sleep, which left my Mom and I to skype for the next two hours, (because us ladies need some extra time to talk about our hair, am I right?!).

I love my parents. (!!!)

I remember it being hard throughout middle to high school though; Alot of my friends had very young parents, ones who were more "in with the times", I guess you could say. My Mom had me when she was 38 years old, so yes, there is 38 years between my Mom and I, and 42 years between my Dad and I. I remember feeling like my parents were too old to understand anything I was going through, as if the generation gap between us was more of a wall than a gap.

As I grow older and older, I am feeling the "generation gap" between us get smaller and smaller. To be honest I'm not even feeling that gap anymore. The things that I once cared so much about in my "angsty adolescent" days, (boys, clothes, being skinny, and being popular), I no longer care for (except for one boy, my hubby, wink!).

And the things that my parents have always cared about since I could remember (Jesus, family, good values, hard work, and good conversation), I now care so deeply about!

I seriously love how they can make me laugh like no one else can. I also love how they are just such a typical married couple, continually poking and prodding each other with their teasing; always knowing exactly which button to push and when to push it.

I love discussing the weather with them! I love hearing them talk about their grandchildren, watching their eyes light up as they're telling the stories. I love knowing everything that is new in town or hearing them try to recall the names all of the babies that have just been born within our church family. (Not even I can remember all the names!)

I love talking about the deep stuff too, the events that happened that once were too raw to speak about or too hard for me to understand at one point. Such as my Mom's miscarriage, and how he was the size of her palm. Tonight she told me what his name would have been and it just sounded like the most beautiful name.

I love when my parents ask me the hard questions, "are you OK out there?", or "have you made any close girlfriends?".

I especially love how when I look at them, I see little hints of myself. I have my Dad's nose and smile and I have my Mom's hips. Personality-wise my Dad gave me his sense of humour and calm demeanor; and I have my Mom to thank for my school-smart-brain and my night-owl tendencies. When it all comes down to it, I just love them, and I have so much to thank them for.

What also has made this day extra special is that I booked my flight to Canada for Thanksgiving! It will be my first time back at "home" since my wedding in June of 2014. That will be a year and four months, people! A.K.A: way too long to be away from the homeland! (I do not recommend the hiatus). I am so excited to have ten whole days filled with nothing but family and best friends. :)

Yay! <3

You Must Become An Island.

I've been on a real Sara Bareilles kick as of late. Frankly, for many years she has been on my iTunes, neglected and gathering dust.

And then her single "Brave" came out. A song that was so powerful to me. I WANNA SEE YOU BE BRAVE! (Isn't that what we all wish we were? Brave?)

One thing lead to another and suddenly I have her entire "The Blessed Unrest" album, and it is All. I. Play. In. The. Car.

Trust me, I am not trying to write a music review anything, but I am in love with this album. Her voice is not exactly my favourite female voice in the world, but nonetheless she sings well and her range is quality stuff!

The best thing though, is that she writes and/or co-writes all of her music.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am all about the lyrics. The only element that truly draws me into a song is not the beat, the melody, or sound, it's the lyrics. And Sara Bareilles is an AMAZING songwriter.

Not to make things heavy, but a song that she wrote called "Islands" is about breaking up with a loved one, and needing to be completely OK with being alone...having total separate lives, with no connection...being an "island".

Sometimes I like to change the meaning of a song to fit my current mood and feelings. (Does anyone else do this too?) I'm definitely not going through a breakup, so I like to listen to this song when I'm feeling particularly introverted, desiring to hide away from the world, and not wanting to let anybody get too close to me.

My goal is to learn this on the piano, or her other teary balled, "Manhattan". Perhaps I'll give it a go tonight. <3

Waiting for the bus stop

Waiting for the concrete black top to settle down

Long enough for me to get off and get a little ground

I'm ready for the sea change

Helpless felt this coming from a mile away

And now you're looking at me babe, and how we'll separate if we can

Cause I still count on one hand the number of good men I know

It's like I'm standing on the edge with just a telephone wire

Trying to get to you first to say the world's on fire

Holding my breath until I know you're alright

Because the water will only rise

When will you realize

You must become an island

You must become an island

You must become an island

And see for yourself that that's what I am

You always dirty up the windows

If you keep 'em at bay that way no one's gonna surprise you by getting too close

Anybody but me though

You've made exceptions to you rules

And now we're staring down truth neither one of us wants to know

It's like I'm standing on the edge with just a telephone wire

Trying to get to you first to say the world's on fire

Holding my breath until I know you're alright

Because the water will only rise

When will you realize

You must become an island

You must become an island

You must become an island

And see for yourself the horizon is all we have

Cheers!

I had a really enjoyable and productive afternoon at work. (I am serious, I love my job!)

My kitchen is--actually--clean. (Actually!)

My weekly hair-wash is done and over with. (What a chore.)

The "Pumpkin Spice" Yankee candle is lit. (It's never too early for a little pumpkin spice!)

The Red Moscato wine is poured into its' rightful stemless glass. (Stemless is the new stemmed.)

"13 Going On 30" is playing in the background. (A movie that will forever give me the "feel-goods".)

And the chocolate cake that I brought home from work is ready to be indulged in. (Did someone say chocolate?)

AND, I just got a "Welcome to the United States of America" letter from US immigration; I am now a Permanent Resident!! (I'll drink to that!)

My late-evening of solitude is undeniably flawless! :)

Frilly.

You guys!

I just picked up thee cutest shower curtain in the world:

Just look at it. It's the perfect blue. It has big voluptuous flowers and little birds perched on branches on it. It's insanely adorable!!! Our apartment has two bathrooms, and now I'm wishing I would have doubled-up on these so I could put one in the guest bathroom as well...oh well, I shall restrain myself.
And to those of you who are thinking "how on earth does her husband put up with such a girly-lookin' shower curtain?", WELL, I will have you know that before we moved in I asked him: "would you mind if I frilled-up our master bathroom?"
His response: "Nope".
Me: *Grin*

Also, I totally lucked-out on this gorgeous painting. I went through HomeGoods twice in one outing. The first time, I promise you this painting did not exist. The second time, it was staring me right in the face!:

Don't you just love how I chose to take a photo of it with my face covering half of the painting? :P
Originally I thought this would go perfectly in our non-windowed bathroom, to liven it up some. But it turns out I found a perfect spot for it in our main area...area. It's between the dining room and the kitchen...hmm, how do you explain that one?

I hope you enjoyed my "finds", even if they are a little on the frilly/girly side of the universal decor spectrum. I just finished taking the photos of our apartment, and I promise I will post them soon. I can't wait to show y'all our new place!! :)

A Tease of Our New Home.

There is a photo of our new apartment building, that we have officially lived in for -almost- two weeks! Like a fantastic wine, everyday here just keeps getting better and better. There are moments where I will notice that I have been standing in the middle of the living room just staring at everything around me, trying to wrap my head around the fact that this is actually our new home! (Does the shock ever wear off? I hope not). It is too beautiful to be true. It smells too new to be true, and it feels too clean to be true.

I am not trying to sound like I am bragging about this, but if you would have seen our old apartment, then you would totally understand. I get amusingly excited about the little things that most people would find nonsensical. 

These windows are so easy to open!

There are no ants in our sugar bowl!

Our front door actually locks!

A thermostat of my very own?!

I have been having a crazy good time perusing up and down the aisles of Target, Big Lot's, HomeGoods, and Kohl's (am I livin' in America or what?) trying to find pieces to make our home just a little more....homey. Most purchases were "needs" rather than wants, such as a Mr. Clean toilet brush and a sturdy shower caddy. And then of course there have been a few "wants" purchases like bedside lamps and bedding. To offer a visual example, below is my new kitchen rug from Target (it was the last one in this colour, I simply had to buy it), that I like to call my "sparkle rug". :)

Interior decorating has always been one of my "things". Even as a young middle-schooler I was alwaaaays rearranging the furniture in my bedroom for a new look; I even painted the walls red (all by myself!), and convinced my Dad to replace the boring carpet with a fuzzy shaggy one! My bedroom was my sanctuary, and now, this apartment is my sanctuary. As a self-declared homebody I have the right to transform our apartment into the warmest, coziest, brightest, and most romantic place on the earth, since the majority of my time will be here anyway. ;)

I plan to take some proper photos of this place tomorrow. I cannot wait to show you all what we have fortunately gotten ourselves into. :)

Love, Jenny.