My Go-To Margarita Mix

Ryan and I are not big drinkers, but we do enjoy an occasional adult beverage to end the evening after the kids go to bed. And a margarita is my drink of choice, as long as it has good tequila.

I have a very sensitive stomach, so all those store bought margarita mixes that contain preservatives, massive amounts of sugar and ingredients I can’t pronounce would make me feel so miserable. So instead of giving up on finding the perfect margarita, I decided to make my own. Tastes and preferences are all different, so the perfect margarita for me, may not be your ideal… but I’m always happy to share what I love!

Fresh Margarita Mix

Print

With ImageWithout Image

Author: Jordanne Marie

Prep time: 5 MCook time: Total time: 5 M

Ingredients:

Margarita Mix

• 12 Lemons
• 6-8 Limes
• Granulated Sugar
• Purified Water

Margarita

• Ice
• Triple Sec
• Good Tequila
• Salt (if desired)
• Club Soda (if desired)

Instructions:

Making The Mix

1. Roll To soften the Lemons & Limes before your slice.
2. Cut the fruit in half.
3. Using a Lemon press, squeeze the juice from all the fruit into a large measuring bowl. 
4. Measure how much juice you've yielded, and double that with purified water. 
5. Strain the juice to remove all the extra pulp and seeds.
6. Depending on how sweet you like your mix, (I prefer mine on that Tart side), add granulated sugar to and wisk it together until the sugar dissolves. 
7. Pour into a glass jar, cover it & put it in the fridge for later. (can last about a week in the fridge)

Assembling the Margarita

1. This can be controversial, depending on how you prefer  your margarita. This is just how I like to make them (easy and using as few tools as possible). 
2. In a glass, (salt the rim if you like... I don't) add ice.
3. Add about a shot of tequila.
4. Add a splash of triple sec.
5. Add the Margarita Mix. 
6. Maybe add a splash of club soda.
7. Stir. Sip. Enjoy. 
8. (You can also make this in a shaker, if you're making multiple servings. I just make one after the kids go to bed, and don't want the extra dishes to clean)
9. Drink responsibly. 

www.jordannemarie.com/blog/2020/8/28/my-go-to-margarita-mix

Fresh Margarita, Margarita

Margarita Mix

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @jordanne__marie on instagram and hashtag it #jordannemarielovessharing

Created using The Recipes Generator

The [Never-Ending] Kitchen Reno

Listing Photo of the Kitchen

We moved to this house in June of 2013, after walking through many “GUT-JOBS” we settled on this house, knowing that the kitchen was newly updated and only needed a little work to make it feel like home. Other than a new coat of paint, updating the countertops, and installing a backsplash, I was so happy with the size and layout of this kitchen. Two months into living here, we donned our n95 masks and went to work (ironically it was on our 1 year wedding anniversary).

A project that I thought would only take a week or two, ended up turning into a MAJOR project. Much like the story of “If you Give a mouse a cookie”. If you tell Ryan you want to paint the walls, he is going to tell you he needs to paint the ceiling first. If we paint the ceiling, we need to add new recessed lighting, and if we add new recessed lighting, we need to cut a MAJOR hole in the ceiling to run said wires. If you have the ceiling open, you may just need to fix the bath tub drain, and while you have that open in the living room, we should also add recessed lighting in the kitchen. My seemingly “simple cosmetic update” of painting over the ugly yellow wall color became a much more intense job.

This was our first home project together, and now after 8 years of being married, I’ve come to learn that nothing is ever just a “Simple update”. Please don’t mistake this as complaining, because I’m incredibly grateful for the skill and handiwork of my husband.

All that to say, we have lived in a constant state of ‘manageable’ renovation since we moved here. Life is busy, children are blessings. Four months into the lighting project update, I found out I was pregnant, which made life a little hectic, but also lit a fire for Ryan to get this house in a more “liveable” state.

In 2016, {3 years after we bought our house} we were in a good financial situation to afford new quartz countertops, and the tile backsplash I had been dreaming about. I felt like we were finally “making it” because the kitchen would be perfect! The color of the cabinets wasn’t my first choice, but the new backsplash and countertops made it feel so much more our style.

I started to nit-pick and asked Ryan if “one day, can we replace the ugly cork floors?” because they started to feel out of place with the fancy new countertops. But we knew that this was another project we would need to save for, and after just having Verona, we needed to take it easy in that department.

Flash forward to Memorial Day 2018: we had a terrible storm and we were without power for a while, and had to connect our refrigerator to the neighbors generator. When we pushed it back in, we were unaware that the hose for the ice maker was punctured and started leaking water. Three weeks later, we realized that the floor in front of the fridge was damp and started to bow. We pulled out the fridge and about died when we saw the extent of the damage.

Thank God for insurance. August 6, 2018. Contractors came to pull out the flooring, and we were met with some pretty devastating news. Mold & Asbestos. We were quarantined from our house, displaced until it was contained. They told us it was going to be a complete kitchen gut. I cried. Many times. All of the contents in the kitchen were packed up in boxes and hauled away. The lower cabinets were ripped out. The flooring was ripped out. It was all gone, so we started to dream about what our kitchen could look like. After a few back and forth calls, we realized that only a few cabinets would be replaced, but we couldn’t find the exact match to our existing cabinets, which resulted in new paint and door/drawer faces.

We had to create a new “makeshift" kitchen in our dining room, using a hot plate to cook dinners and we washed our dishes in the bathtub upstairs. It was not an ideal situation, but we made it work. In order to save some money, and make a few updates to our walls, flooring etc, Ryan agreed to do most of the work himself, which seemed like a good idea, until I found out I was pregnant with Vivienne. Can we just talk about the irony of how big renovations & pregnancy seem to go hand in hand in this house. As I was busy growing a human, I was a little useless when it came to all the other work that needed to be done in the kitchen.

When you’re in the middle of it, it felt like the renovation was never ending, and to be honest, our kitchen still has some work to be done. Trim. Broken tiles. Side paneling. Grout. But from the photos, you can barely tell, and looking back, I’m so grateful to have the kitchen I have today. It’s one of my favorite things about our house.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Moral of the story: real life doesn’t look like a home renovation show. You can’t always wrap everything in a pretty bow, say here is where we started and in 3 short months, this is where we are with our perfect completed kitchen. Patience. Trust the journey. Sometimes the end result turns out better than you could have ever imagined.

Dear Jonathan... {Year 6}

To the little boy, who made me a mama. Thank you. Never in a million years did I think I would know THIS MUCH about Dinosaurs and other prehistoric (marine & winged) reptiles, but you have made learning right along side you so much fun. Seeing your face light up because I show the same amount of interest in it as you do, makes it all so worth it.

I love you. I love the way you love me. I love how much you’ve taught me about myself in these past 6 years. You cheer me on when I work out, you always thank me for making you food and tell me its good, and when I have a bad mommy day, you’re always quick to forgive me.

August 2016

You have the sweetest soul. Your excitement for life is my favorite thing ever, because you’ve never met a thing or a person you didn’t like, and I love that about you. (except for spiders, like me, you really hate spiders)

Watching you grow up and turn into this little boy I see before me has been the best 6 years of my life. I never imagined being as strong of a person as I am today… if you told me 5 years ago that one day I would be able to get 3 kids ready, out the door and in carseats in 5 min flat, I’d think you were crazy! But here we are.

You got some of my favorite qualities from me and your dad and it has been so fun seeing them come out. I adore being creative with you, drawing, coloring, painting, and then also watching you and your dad geek out over all the technical stuff that you enjoy, building designs, working with your hands, etc. You are one cool kid, and we tell you that every day.

You are the sweetest big brother. You are so kind and loving and a little rough sometimes with them, but I know it’s because you love them THAT MUCH, that sometimes you just can’t control the cute aggression that you feel. (I get that way too)

Also. Your freckles. They are my favorite. And your cute Jonny laugh that you’ve done since you were little. I love you my bright eyed little boy. Thank you for all the love and grace you’ve shown me these past 6 years as I navigate being a mom. I can’t wait to see what this next year holds for you as you begin Kindergarten!

Love forever,

Your imperfect mama

When Enough is Enough...

(disclaimer: I am not a certified life coach, dietician, fitness instructor or personal trainer. I’m not telling you that this is the only way to do something, just my personal journey and how I went about it. You have to find what works for you. Also, I know every health journey is different & results will look different for each person. I know my worth is not found in my body.)

There is a certain number on the scale that when I see it, I say, Okay, Enough is enough. There is a certain feeling I get in my body, when I say Enough is ENOUGH. I’m not sure if it’s being an 8 on the Ennegram, but when I want to change something, I figure out what it’s going to take to make the change and I do it.

I’ll talk about this more later, but I have a VERY sensitive stomach. Is it possibly from the years of feeding my body processed sugar and garbage? My pop/soda addiction. That one week I lived off of pixie sticks, Red Bull and Monster? Who knows. But I know this, I had my gallbladder removed in 2014 and its been a crazy learning experience to figure out what will and will not send me STRAIGHT to the bathroom. (yeah I went there).

Flash forward to January 2020. I was so motivated by the NEW DECADE, but I kept telling myself that I need to breastfeed (pump) for a full year, and I still had 6 months to go. I was sooo worried about not consuming enough calories, I was afraid that workouts would affect my supply, believe me, I had a MILLION excuses. It only took 12 days into the new year for me to say “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”.

Before I found out I was pregnant with Vivienne, I had just lost 20 lbs, I was in great shape and felt unstoppable! I was so proud of my progress in those short 3 months, that when that pregnancy test said positive, I was scared about what I knew was coming (the pregnancy/ not the baby). If you’ve been around for the past 6 years, you know that pregnancy KICKS. MY. BUTT. in those first 3 months, and I knew it meant I only had maybe a week left before I started feeling all the sickness. With all three pregnancies I was diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum, and lost 10-12 lbs from 6.5 weeks gestation-20 weeks.

Something no one tells you about after you have your third baby is the SERIOUS PHYSICAL TOLL that pregnancy and child birth can have on your body. Holy cow. Diastasis Recti. Weak Pelvic Floor. Pelvic organ Prolapse. (not to mention the toll that sleep deprivation can have on you) After Vivienne was born, I felt SO WEAK. And having her be my third baby, I wanted to soak in every drop of her, but also knew the importance of breastfeeding, so I made sure to keep my calories up by eating my body weight in Double Stuf Oreos, Peanut butter M&Ms & ice cream. “These all make me drink water” is how I justified it to myself.

Cut back to January 12th, I’ve just spent a week feeling like crap, constantly running to the bathroom because sweets do that to me. Everything I ate was making me sick. I was packing on weight like crazy, because most of what I was eating was refined sugars & carbs and my body was storing everything it could. I got on the scale and saw those numbers. I was at my “uncomfortable for me” weight. My clothes didn’t fit anymore, even wearing LEGGINGS was hurting my stomach. I lived in sweatpants and sweatshirts. I wanted to cry.

It was time. So. I grabbed my tape measure & workout journal, swallowed my pride, took some “Before” photos and recorded my measurements.

Don’t stop reading: because this is where it gets hard, because a lot of people will say “Don’t do that to yourself! Your worth is not made up by numbers and measurements” And I 100% Agree with that. These measurements and photos were not meant to shame me, or tell me I wasn’t valuable, but yet, acted as my motivation to see change. It’s easy to get discouraged if you’re basing your progress primarily on a scale, especially if you’re working out. Muscle weighs more than FAT. And I knew these numbers wouldn’t consume me.

How I took My Measurements:

Using a seamstress or fabric tape measure, make sure the tape is laying flat on the surface around each area, and do not pull super tight.

What I recorded:

• Left Arm

• Right Arm

• Bust

• Natural Waist

• Belly (at the biggest area)

• Hips

• Left Thigh

• Right Thigh

• Left Calf

• Right Calf

Why I recorded inches: It was amazing to see the inches drop, even if the pounds weren’t. I would take measurements every other week, sometimes I gained an inch, sometimes I lost 4 inches all around, but the process is the Journey.

My Before Photos from Jan 13, 2020

Next up, I took Before Pictures: One from the front, side & back. And here’s why, obviously you can see a physical change in a photo, but also, you will start to see a difference in posture and confidence. That is something you can’t see on a scale.

Now here’s the most important thing I want to communicate to you. There is no “END RESULT” no “desired pants size” or number on the scale. This was a conscious lifestyle change. I wanted to become someone who ENJOYED the workout. Someone who made fitness a part of her life, not someone who fit it in if I had the time, or because I wanted to punish my body for the choices I made. I actually started to CRAVE the endorphins. I’ve learned that I’m a better mom/wife if I am able to take 30-40 min a day to put in my headphones and do the work.

July 2020 Progress Photo.

Today marks 6 whole months. It started slow, with maybe 2-3 workouts a week. Some yoga & spin classes. Now it’s every day I do SOMETHING to move my body. Running, spinning, yoga, strength training.

I’ve lost 10 pounds. Down 30.5 total inches.

I’m going to be honest with you, if all this hard work was only about the pounds, I would have given up months ago. Also, If you’re reading this and saying, you don’t have the time… I’m here to say, you do. I have 3 kids. Put down your phone. That 30 min you could spend scrolling, could be your 30 min.

All that to say, don’t make it about self loathing or shame. Do it for you because you want to love the body you’ve been given. I have cellulite, stretch marks and lots of loose skin, but my body gave me three wonderful babies. I shifted my mindset away from “losing weight” and said Screw Being Skinny, I want to be STRONG. I want my kids to see that when you have something you want to fix, don’t just talk about it, go and do something.