Margarita Mama

Margaritas from my trip to San Diego - it was happy hour.

It is quickly becoming the time of year when a delicious margarita is just the answer to a long, sometimes stressful, very often exhausting day spent with tiny children.

Here are two of my favorite margarita recipes - one with tequila and one without!  Both incorporate carbonated beverages (beer or lemon-lime soda), which give both drinks a lovely slight effervescence.  Fresh limes are a must and I should clearly state that I do not believe in blended margaritas.  Blech - no point to all that slushiness!

Beer-ritas - 

Ok, so the name needs work, but these are my favorite margaritas ever (homemade, anyway).

You need: 

• (1) can frozen limeade (light if you prefer less calories)
• (1) can of light beer
• (12 oz.) water
• (10 - 12 oz.) tequila (I use a "Silver" tequila)
• (2 - 4) Fresh limes
• Salt

Thaw the limeade, pour in pitcher and mix with beer, water, and tequila.  Cut limes in half.  I've used anywhere from 2 - 4 limes, depending on their size and how much you like lime.  (I love lime.)  Squeeze limes into pitcher, reserve a lime or two and throw the rest in the pitcher.  Makes it waaayyyyy prettier.  

Take your reserved limes and rub the lime juice on the edge of the glass you are serving the margarita in.  I grind sea salt onto a small plate and then invert the glass onto the salt.  The lime juice makes the salt stick nicely to the rim of the glass.

Add ice to your glass and pour margarita into the glass.

Garnish with a lime.

Virgin Margaritas - 

You need:

• (1) can frozen limeade (light if you prefer less calories)
• (1) can of lemon-lime soda
• (12 oz.) water
• (1/2 oz.) orange juice
• Fresh limes
• Salt

Thaw the limeade, pour in pitcher and mix with soda, water, and orange juice.  Cut limes in half.  I've used anywhere from 2 - 4 limes, depending on their size and how much you like lime.  (I love lime.)  Squeeze limes into pitcher, reserve a lime or two and throw the rest in the pitcher.  Makes it waaayyyyy prettier.  

Take your reserved limes and rub the lime juice on the edge of the glass you are serving the margarita in.  I grind sea salt onto a small plate and then invert the glass onto the salt.  The lime juice makes the salt stick nicely to the rim of the glass.

Add ice to your glass and pour margarita into the glass.

Garnish with a lime.

Voila!  Heaven on a sunny afternoon!

Cheers -

Mama H

Mom today

I've been thinking a lot about moms and being a grown up and having friends and how all this changes us and what happens next, after we've mastered this whole mom thing and our kids grow up and move out...and, yes, that was supposed to be a run on sentence.  You're welcome.
No, really, the last few years have been so intense.  We went from the craziness of trying to get pregnant (two years of SUCH FUN doctor's visits!) to the relentlessness of being new parents.  And just when Big E was getting a little more mobile and a bit less needy, we decided to try again.  The drugs worked and we were blessed with Big H.  My boys are a little less than 21 months apart.  Which means that, today, as I write this, Big H is about to turn 3 and in a few short months Big E will turn 5.
Side note:  My mind can almost not comprehend the fact that I will have a FIVE YEAR OLD.
Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about how I'm not getting any younger (I'll be 35 this summer) and if we're really done having kids.  I used to jokingly say that I wanted five children, to spread out my crazy and make their lives easier.  And after having two children, I can tell you, I'd like to have more.  I'm just not sure I can handle the pregnancy part or the first year/breastfeeding/sleep deprivation part.  Which is kind of a problem. And I know that adoption is an option, but I have watched a few friends go through that process and if you thought infertility was gut-wrenching and took strength to live through, you can safely assume that adoption is it's own crazy ride.
So, what happens to us once we've figured out this mom thing and then our kids grow up???  I love being a mom.  I love staying home with my kids and watching them grow into little people.  I love that I get to bear witness to their daily realizations about the world around them.  But I know that in a few short years, the view will look completely different.  Don't get me wrong, I know they'll always be my boys and that, god-willing, we'll still talk, and play, and spend quality time together.  But it will be different.  These moments right now really are priceless.  And even on the afternoons where Big H has given himself a bloody nose with a garden stake, and Big E is screaming at us because we're not playing with the dump truck the way it is SUPPOSED to be played with, and Ginger the dog has thrown up on a pile of clean laundry, and Olive the dog is whining from the bedroom because she's old and can't figure out how to walk down the hall and find all of us - even on those afternoons - if I can hear my thoughts through the chaos, I try to pay attention to the quietest thought.  The one that says, "this too shall pass and damn, will you miss it."

Boy's Valentines cards

Well, Internet- world, I've been MIA here for a while...sorry about that!
Back today with a big THANK YOU to the blog, One Charming Party.  I am in love with Valentine's Day...as cheesy as that may sound.  I love it.  It's a day dedicated to telling the ones you love how you feel, eating delicious sweets, and, if you're of age, drinking champagne.  Or at least, in my book it is.
I'm all about Pinterest (me and everybody else out there, too!) and decided to search for some boy-friendly free printable Valentine's cards.  Voila!  One Charming Party came to the rescue.
I did use Picasa to add "To" on the printables...preschool is big on the kiddos learning their names and we wanted to personalize each card.
Happy Valentine's Day Eve!
Cheers -
Mama H

Four year old art

Big E took marker to paper and created the above artwork.  I'm kind of in love with it.  Then again, he translated for me.  Would you like insight into his creative little mind?!?!?

How awesome is he???  Love.

Cheers -
Mama H

Fantasy Shopping

My husband loves Fantasy sports.  He's been commissioner of his Fantasy football and basketball leagues.  Both children's birth stories include details about my husband finishing up his research on his picks for that year's draft.  So, just so you know, fantasy sports are totally acceptable around here.
Fantasy shopping is also very accepted around these parts.
As a Stay at Home Mom, there's not a lot of dress code requirements to meet.  Washable.  Comfortable.  Not super frumpy-making.  All things fairly easy to accomplish on a daily basis.  However, I still enjoy pretending I can indulge in my fashion-plate fantasies every once in a while.  And thank god for the internet, because living in a small-ish town in Montana is not the place to go to indulge said fantasies.
You would think, since this is an activity not based in reality, that I would be all about finding things I like, clicking them into my cart, and moving on, with no regard for price.  Oh, but you would be wrong.  I'm a bargain-hunter, through and through.  Even in my wildest internet fantasy shopping sprees, I search out the least expensive option.  I can't help it.  If I find something I like, or there's a particular item I want to research, I simply must search out other more affordable option.  Sometimes this is fairly easy to do.  And nowadays, there are even whole blogs dedicated to this (fashion here; home decor here)!
How far do these fantasies go?  Far enough that I use this site to see if I can find some free shipping or coupon codes, just to get the price down a bit further.
Cheers and happy shopping -
Mama H

Denim backpack - WHAT?

I'm sorry, where the heck did this come from?????  1987??????????

I mean, can you imagine the design meeting for this?
"Let's take some jeans...and, oooh, ooh, remember that backpack your grandma bought you to be one of the cool kids, back in 5th grade?!??!?  Let's take jeans and make an updated version of that!"

Egads.

Cheers -
Mama H

Writer's block

Man, oh man, I've been suffering from some major writer's block.  I know - I've left you and high and dry.  I'm so sorry!  I just don't know what to write.
The boys are good.  I'm good.  The husband is good.
What's not so good?  The weather.  Seriously.  I'm over this:

I mean, really???  It says the low is supposed to be 19 degrees.  NINETEEN.  But that up there?  You read it right:  1.single.degree.  Ugh.
As if the bitter cold isn't enough of an insult, the reason it's this cold is because we're experiencing an inversion.  Which is basically where the clouds have gotten together and decided to hold all this cold down among the lowly people, in the valley, and let the warm air have some fun up in the mountains.  Which also means that the clouds have managed to keep all the pollution (smog, wood smoke, car exhaust, what have you) down here, too.  Which also means that we've had a Stage II air alert for the past few days.  You know what that means for those lucky sufferers of asthma???  Ugh, again.
So, I haven't run in two days.
Growl, growl, growl.
On that note, I shall try to conquer my dislike of January - a long month, full of cruddy, cold, weather, with no festive holidays - and regal you with some Juggle Like a Mama musings sometime soon.
Until then - keep warm!
Cheers -
Mama H