Learning to Enjoy the Good Things in Life – Plus S’mores Milkshakes

Back in the winter, during a big snow that confined us in the house, Jim and I decided to cash in our frequent flyer miles.  We booked a trip to Paris, France for the first week of August.  Crazy!  We’ve been gathering air miles and thinking of going to Europe for a few years now, but we kept putting it off for one reason and another.  It felt good to have the trip booked and planned.

As the trip got closer, I started to feel like maybe we shouldn’t go.  It just feels so extravagant.  Then we discovered that the dishwasher had been leaking slowly for a long time.  Long enough to ruin the cabinet next to it.

Things had to be propped up.

I began to really wonder if we should spend the money on the trip.  We can still afford it though, and of course, it was too late to cancel anyway.  But I was having such trouble justifying the trip to myself.

I mean – Paris!  It’s a dream trip!  We aren’t celebrating anything.  No big birthdays or anniversaries.  If we wanted to get away, we could do a closer trip that’s less expensive.

Then it hit me that Paris is like those wonderful milkshakes you see on Instagram and Pinterest – the kind with a whole other dessert on top of them.  Just like those shakes, Paris is decadent and delicious and absolutely impossible to justify.

The thing is, why should I need to justify it to myself at all?

I realized that I have trouble accepting the really great things in life and enjoying them as they come.

I determined to change my attitude about the trip.  To stop trying to justify it and stop feeling guilty for taking a once in a lifetime trip with my husband.  Honestly it doesn’t get any better than that and I want to enjoy it fully with no guilt attached and no need to justify it.

Shortly after this epiphany, Jim had a bad bike wreck.  I got a call at 6:30am from a stranger saying he’d been in an accident and they were waiting on the ambulance.  By the time I got there, he was loaded on the ambulance, bleeding and immobilized because they feared a neck or spine injury.

He ended up having a concussion and lots of bruises, scrapes and road rash, but he’s recovering just fine.  His wreck was three weeks before our trip, but he’s going to be fine to go.

Then the air conditioner in our house stopped working.  More real life stuff coming at us.  More reasons to make me second guess taking this trip.

Life is messy.  But we are all prepped for this trip.  Life isn’t perfect, and waiting for the perfect time for a once in a lifetime event would be foolish.  We are ready to experience all the decadent goodness of traveling together to Paris!

Which brings me to these S’mores Milkshakes.  We consume a lot of milkshakes at our house, but they aren’t as decadent as these.  This time, I wanted to go all out!

I started with top notch ingredients.

I popped into Kroger for Promised Land Chocolate Milk and Breyers Chocolate Ice Cream.  The actual milkshake part of this dessert has only those two ingredients.  And I have to say that this is the best chocolate milkshake I’ve ever had at home.  That Promised Land Chocolate Milk is almost like a milkshake before even adding ice cream.  It’s so good!

The S’mores part of the shake comes from prepping the jar and adding a S’mores cookie that I picked up in the Kroger bakery.

To prep the jar, I swiped marshmallow and fudge toppings inside the glasses.  More marshmallow topping rimmed the outside of the jars and dripped down in imperfect, messy streams.  I scattered chocolate sprinkles on the marshmallow topping.

Pour the chocolate milkshake into the prepped glasses.  Top with another scoop of ice cream, so that the cookie has something to hold onto.  Add whipped cream and stick the in the cookie.

Did I mention you’ll want a plate under these?  Once the cookie goes in, the milkshake will begin to overflow in a lovely, messy this-is-too-good-to-be-true kind of way!

You need to make these milkshakes!  And when you do, think about savoring the good things in life without attaching any strings to them.  No justification.  No guilt.

Drink the chocolatey shake.  Eat the cookie.  Scrape the fudge and marshmallow from inside the glass.  Then lick the outside too!

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

Disclosure: I have written this post on behalf of Kroger, Promised Land and Breyers.  I have been compensated for this post, however all opinions are my own.