Back in October, the folks at Everybody’s Nuts sent me a sampler of their Pistachios. I am a big fan of pistachios and an even bigger fan of freebies, so I accepted their sampler box and expected to be no more or less impressed with Pistachios than I was before I tried them. Though, I was grateful nonetheless for the chance to give new flavors a try.

But, just like there is a big difference in gas station coffee and a Grande cup of Starbuck’s Daily Blend, there is a huge difference in quality flavored Pistachios and the sticky red kind you find in the aisle of your local convenience store. I was immediately a fan and started buying their nuts from that point on. (Once you’ve had their Salt & Vinegar Pistachios you’ll never go back to the gas station variety!)

So, when I got another chance to try Everybody’s Nuts and Wonderful Pistachios samples I jumped at the chance to do so and turn it into a giveaway for my readers as well.

Here’s what you may not know about Pistachios. These little nuts pack quite the nutritional punch. Among snack nuts, they have the highest content of phytosterols. I know, I know. Phyto-what? Basically, they have a lot of this really good stuff that has been shown to reduce cholesterol absorption and basically make them super heart healthy. Guess they aren’t called the “skinny nut” for nothing.

Geez, what I wouldn’t give to have that nickname.

Anyways, here’s where the giveaways come in. Because they know that once you try these nuts you’ll be so convinced that a snack can be healthy and delicious, they are offering to send 10 of you a sampler of Everybody’s Nuts and Wonderful Pistachios.

And here’s what you have to do to enter. Head over to the Pistachio Health site and check out the facts, then come back leave a comment with one interesting Pistachio fact you learned while you were over there. I’ll be shutting down comments at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, February 1st and drawing 10 lucky winners.

**This giveaway is open to all U.S. addresses (sorry, no international folks this time.) Be sure to leave an email address or blog link in your comment so I can get in touch with you and get an address to have your sampler sent out ASAP!**

Head back to Bloggy Giveaways to register for more cool giveaways!

We have a secret coat closet at our house. We hide it right by the front door. Apparently it is only visible to the adult eye because it goes largely ignored by the kids in our house.

In the winter, my constant refrain has been, “Hang up your coats. In the closet. No, coats do not go on the floor!”

In all fairness, when dealing with preschoolers it is a little much to expect them to be able to reach the hangers and hang their coats up. But, after picking coats up off the floor morning, noon, and night I knew something had to give.

Which is when we got smart. And picked up a couple of initialed towel hooks. We hung them beside the coat closet low enough for even our littlest kiddo to reach and ta-da! A solution was born.

Now, my girls not only hang up their coats every time they walk in the door, they can also reach them easily and put them on without me having to get them out before we leave. They love being self-reliant and I love not having a coat pile in the entry way every day. It’s a win-win, I say!

So, that’s what is working for me this week. Head over to Rocks in My Dryer and see what’s working for others across the blogosphere.

Kai’s been begging for months to have purple hair. But all the purple hair dye I’ve found is permanent or semi-permanent and I just wasn’t ready to dive into the deep end with hair color just yet. But, I finally found some purple hair spray at the Sally Beauty Supply down the street and she got her wish.

I let her choose whether to do highlights or her full head and (big shocker) she went all out and chose to have her whole head sprayed purple. Her more reserved sister, on the other hand, chose a single purple highlight.

It didn’t seem to matter whether we sprayed a lot or a little though because the next morning their pillowcases were identically purple!

For more Wordless Wednesday from moms who might actually be able to keep it, you know, wordless head over to 5 Minutes for Mom!

You all know Jane over at What About Mom, right? If not, go now ’cause she is awesome. Seriously. I’ll be here when you get back.

No, really. Go.

Okay, back now? Good.

Last week Jane posted pics of what a real house looks like. You know, the kind where the spirit of Donna Reed is not channeled on a daily basis and where the kids don’t live in some kind of plastic bubble where messes are never made. I loved her post. I admired her honesty.

And, I was so inspired by her Full Monty post that I decided to post my own. Because, you know what? I’m all about keeping it real here at the Land of Lovings.

So, in the spirit of transparency brought out by brave Jane, here’s my own Full Monty post. This was my house on Saturday and Sunday morning (note how many dishes were left out since FRIDAY? **hangs head in shame**).

Actually, I’m shocked at how much cleaner it looks in pictures. Because, it was bad, people. The worst part? My house has actually been in worse shape. And, I don’t have any real excuse for it. Except that I’ve got two unruly kids and I’m gestating a human being. And, you know, that I’m hopelessly addicted to day time TV. Do those count as valid reasons or just lame excuses? Actually, I don’t care either way. Last week it was simply our reality.

So, here you go. My house in all of its messy disheveled glory.

You know, I think with posts like this one (and my infamous baby bottle post) I may be guaranteeing that my mother completely avoids my blog on Tuesdays. Sorry, Mom!

What about you guys? Any dirty little housekeeping secrets lurking around your house?

I hate car shopping. Mostly because, and please forgive me for this, I don’t like dealing with used car salesmen. They aren’t all bad, I know. But there’s always one who seems to go out of his way to fit into the stereotype.

Take for example the guy who tried to sell us a minivan a couple of weeks ago. He was so busy trying to sell us the car he didn’t bother to notice that I have two girls instead of a boy and a girl.

It grew increasingly uncomfortable as he kept referring to Kai as “little buddy” and “big brother” while I tried over and over again to stress my feminine pronouns and refer to them loudly as my girls.

Finally, when he left us alone for a minute Kai asked me why he kept calling her “buddy.”

I explained that he wasn’t paying attention and that he couldn’t tell the difference between a little boy and a little girl.

She looked at me incredulously and said, “You mean he didn’t notice that I don’t have a PICKLE?!?!?”

So, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when he finally got back in the car and she said loudly, “Hey, mister. You know, I’m a girl, right? And I don’t have a pickle. Ooookaaaaayyyy?”

Guess he had that one coming.

Every mom needs her quiet time. You know, time when you’re not negotiating peace treaties, threatening time outs, cleaning up dirty clothes, or dressing the Snow White Barbie in her ball gown for the hundred-thousandth time that day. (Why, oh why, can’t they make these outfits easier to put on?!?)

And kids need to be clean, right? They get into crayons and markers. They run around and get sweaty. They put sand in their hair. You get the idea.

Combine the two and you have my favorite sanity saver. Bath Time. Oh, how the angels sing at bath time.

Now that the girls are almost 3 and 5 I can let them bathe largely on their own. Before you start sending concerned comments about me leaving them alone in a tub of water, you should know that I am always right there with them. I am generally not more than a few feet away from them while they are bathing and absolutely always within earshot. But, the fact that I don’t have to physically chase them all over the house for the 30 minutes (or hour or two) that they’re bathing is blissful. And if I get the hair clean and stinkyness washed off first, they’re good to go the rest of their time in the bath.

I can sit beside the door to the bathroom and read a book. Or eat a candy bar. Or just close my eyes and breathe. Ah, the peace of bath time.

And they couldn’t be happier. Some cups, some spoons, a few plastic toys and occasionally some food coloring to make the bubbles pretty and they are good to go. They sit in there until they are pruney and happy and their mom is less frazzled than she was a mere 30 minutes earlier.

Which is why my kids may be accused of being unruly or undisciplined or uncontrollable, but they will never be accused of being unclean. Because sometimes, just sometimes, they even get two baths a day.

Hey, whatever it takes to make everyone happy, right?

That is what is working for me this week. Head over to Rocks in My Dryer to see what is working for other moms!

Check out those hands! Is that the stamping equivalent to coloring outside the lines?

For more Wordless Wednesday, head over to 5 Minutes for Mom!

I feel like this day should not go unnoticed in my documentation of your childhood. But, I struggle with how to explain it to you today.

When I look into your eyes filled with innocence and excitement, how do I explain the importance of this day without also telling you about some of the darkest truths in our nation’s history? How do I explain that we live in a country of possibility without revealing to you that there are others who would try to limit your achievements based on your gender or the color of your skin?

How do I tell you that today is a momentous day because only 50 years ago your parents would have been breaking the law by marrying outside of their race? How could I explain that only a few short decades ago you would have been looked upon with disdain and anger by many simply because of your mixed race and yet on this historic day we swear into office our country’s first bi-racial president?

To expain this to you now would be destructive. Though, I’m not sure it would ever be a productive thing to explain. But, someday you will know. And someday you will learn how far our country has come.

I am thankful beyond measure that this will likely be something you can never fully grasp. It will seem to you an unbelievable and outdated ideal from a time long ago. I pray that when you are old enough for me to tell you these things you will look at me in disbelief and accuse me of exaggerating the truth. And I pray that when you are even older and can truly understand our national & cultural history you will be filled with gratitude and hope at how much change can be accomplished in such a short amount of time.

For now, I will tell you that we are getting a new president. That it is an important and special day. And that, though politically we may disagree as a nation, we can come together on this day to celebrate the hope and the knowledge that America is and will always be a land of unmeasured opportunity. For all people. Of all colors.

When we have a long weekend and no fun & exciting getaway plans we always end up doing the same thing. That is, we always end up getting around to the boring, yucky, no-fun tasks that get lost during the hectic weekday shuffle.

This weekend we tackled the chicken pen. And by we I mean, of course, my husband and kids. They had coop duty and I was there to document it all. You know, for posterity. And also so my hands were too full to actually help scoop chicken litter out of the boxes.

Chickens, we’ve found, are no more messy than any other animal you might have as a pet. But, they’re no less messy either. And luckily (or not) all their mess gets concentrated in one specific spot.

On a bit of a side note, I have just one thing to say to you all: Clean your eggs.
(Okay, so the ones you buy at the store are most likely bleached and sanitized, but Lord knows I will never be able to think of eggs the same way again after seeing where some of our girls end up laying theirs.)

What does it take to keep a coop in good shape? Glad you asked.

We clean out the chicken boxes (I’ll spare you a before photo) and put the litter in our compost bins to decompose into some nice healthy soil to use in our Spring garden.

We put down some fresh wheat straw in the boxes to keep the chickens warm in this super cold winter weather.

Finally, we spread the remaining hay stray all over the coop for the chickens to pick and scratch at.

All in all, it’s not that bad. Kind of like cleaning a big cat box. But, actually, a bit less disgusting and perfumy smelling.

Thankfully, our ladies (and Rooster McLovin) now have one lovely freshly cleaned coop to lay all those beautiful brown eggs in. And if we’re really lucky it will stay that way for at least a day or two.

That’s what we tackled this week. To see what other folks around the blogosphere have been tackling visit Tackle It Tuesday over at 5 Minutes for Mom!

And just so you don’t think we spend our days forcing our kids into deplorable child labor conditions, here are a couple of pics of them actually enjoying (I promise!) spending the day outside with their chickens.

Okay, so I’ve been sofa bound all week for some high blood pressure issues. Let me say, I missed out on the 1960s so seeing flashing spots and blurred vision because of an ultra-high BP yesterday was about as close as I got to the whole hallucinogenic trippy experience. I don’t long to experience it again.

Not too much exciting or inspiring happens when you’re stuck on the couch, so I’ve decided to cop out and finish out the week with a Meme. Forgive me for not coming up with something more original. I promise to do better next week!

Technically I’m supposed to tag someone, so I’m tagging all of you. You copy the list and bold the things you’ve actually done. Leave me a link in the comments if you do it so I can come by and read all about the things you’ve done!

99 Things I’ve Done

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band (does a Marching Band count? : ))

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland/world

8. Climbed a mountain.

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29 Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33 Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41 Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45 Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60 Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Gotten flowers for no reason

64 Donated blood, platelets, or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66 Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67 Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job (does it count if your parents fire you from their company?)

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79 Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a lawsuit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

Okay, I’m off to watch a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Marathon since there is nothing left to do on bed rest. Hey, at least it isn’t Rock of Love Charm School, right? (Actually, it’s only because I watched all I could stand of that yesterday. **sigh**)