Today I’m celebrating a few of life’s little joys, including:

1. Pretzel + Nutella Ice cream

Pretzels and Nutella have always been a favorite of mine, so I’m not sure why I didn’t think about adding ice cream to the mix earlier. We recently started getting this giant tub of vanilla ice cream from Costco and we were both getting creative with how to spice it up a bit. Adam’s go-to mix is adding a spoonful of peanut butter. That’s good and all, but I tend to like my sweets at the Over-Board level. Adam’s peanut butter fix inspired me to add a spoonful of Nutella, which was instantly amazing and reminded me of Italian gelatto, but I needed a certain crunch factor. Enter: Pretzels. Swirl it to perfection, and it’s instant satisfaction.

2. Our bathroom peek-through
So when I left for Idaho, knowing I’d be gone for a month, I told Adam that he had my permission to start a house project – under one condition: It had to be finished by the time I got home.

This condition was not met.

I won’t go into details about my initial reaction, because it wasn’t pretty, but I’m pretty much over it now and making the most of our home (once again) being in constant construction-mode. My favorite part is the fact that our bathroom now has a hole in the wall, right above the shower. Sometimes when Adam is showering I stick my head right through here….

and wait. With this huge dumb, Chesire-cat grin on my face just to freak him out. And just yesterday Adam let me sleep in while he made breakfast with the kids. He used the peek-through to see if I was still sleeping or not and it scared the crap out of me.

3. Axton’s Sunbeam teacher
I’d heard lots of wonderful things about Sister Wolfe, as I’ve had many friends whose kids have also had Sister Wolfe as their Sunbeam (Sunday school) teacher, but I didn’t realize the extent of her awesomeness. Axton has only been in her class since January, and in the last 6 weeks he has received one phone call, 2 cards in the mail, and one e-card in my email from her. Not to mention, the most exuberant reactions to his coloring book pages he gives to her, numerous hugs in the hallway, and playing golf during class. It’s wonderful to see someone outside of family love your children the way you would want them to be loved.

4. My Start Planner
I first heard about this daily planner at the United Conference last October. I sat in on a break-out session with Kristy Dickerson, a lifestyle photographer, business coach, and the co-founder of Start Planner. I was instantly intrigued with this planner. Not only does it have awesome “Big Picture” sections like goals, projects, and finances, but its extremely detailed, daily check-off lists makes my heart swoon! I am definitely more a paper-and-pencil kind of girl, as opposed to digital check lists! I bought my copy in November of last year, and was anxiously waiting for January to start using it. I bring this with me almost everywhere I go, and jot down notes, wish lists, blog ideas, anything that comes to mind. This planner brings me right back to middle school, when we were all given a daily agenda to use for the school year. I was obsessed with my planner, lists, and check-offs then, and I still am today!

5. Daydreaming about travels
One of my goals for this year is to explore the east coast/local areas more. So I checked out a few books on things to do in Maryland/Virginia area, as well as a Guide to Hikes in Baltimore.

As you can see below, I also checked out those big bricks of books, like Lonely Planet’s Guide to The World, 1,000 Places to See Before you Die, and 500 Places to Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up. I did this mostly because I wanted to see what locations would be mentioned in the context of the entire world!! I was happy to see that the National Mall is of course mentioned in all three, so I got to check that off the list already! A few other places I would like to see while we are living on the east coast include: Monticello, Boston, Shenandoah National Park, Great Falls (Maryland side), the hike to Annapolis Rock, Cylburn Arboretum, Rocks State Park, Deep Creek Lake, St. Michaels, Virginia Beach, Tangier Island….and much more!! I would LOVE to hear your favorite things to do in the Maryland/Viriginia/Delaware/Southern PA area….what would you tell a brand new tourist to do in this area? What are some of the little-known treasures? I want to go exploring!!