Ten on Tuesday.

1. Been eating a good deal of popcorn here. Our "recipe" is 3 tablespoons coconut oil + 1/2 cup kernels. Think we'll make some for afternoon snack today, yum!

2. Woke up to find a light on our dishwasher strangely flickering and were sure it was broken there for a bit, but it seems to be fine now. Hopefully it doesn't decide to die on, say, Thanksgiving or something.

3. Just the four of us for Thanksgiving this year, and Ron is very much looking forward to his sweet potato pie. Alla keeps telling me I need to make the turkey and the carrot souffle, and I keep telling her it is much too soon and not to worry, I promise I'll make it.

4. A little random advice for parents of kids under 5: start a change jar, separate from piggy banks, before they start learning about money in school, so when your kid's teacher sends homework that requires them to grab a handful of just pennies and nickels and see what they come up with, you aren't frantically tearing apart every top drawer in the house. Trust me.

5. Hate to jinx us, but I daresay my son has grown out of his dairy allergy. We've given him butter, cow's milk, and cheese, and so far so good. Can it be? After three years of either substituting or going without, we can add some old favorites back into our dinner rotation?

6. Too bad I don't have the stuff for the lumberjack hash on hand, because I have no other plan for dinner tonight. Things usually fall apart right before and after Thanksgiving - something about knowing I'm going to spend the better part of three days cooking sort of makes me stop doing it altogether the week before and after - ha!

7. After pulling out all of the winter stuff we have come to the following conclusions: Fisher needs a bigger coat. Alla needs a bigger coat, and unfortunately hers (blue, I am so smart) is just too big for Fisher this year. Alla also needs bigger snowpants and boots. Fisher, luckily will inherit her two pairs of grown-out-of snowpants. I better get on this while we're still snow-free.

8. November 15th and still snow-free. Crazy.

9. One night last week we did our Candy Buy Back night, whereby the kids "purchase" coupons with the Halloween candy they have left. It is their choice to participate or not, but since we wait about a week, the newness of the treat bag has worn off and they were eager. They lightened their loads considerably and came away with coupons for cool stuff like Stay Up 15 Minutes Past Bedtime, Watch an Extra Show Today, 20 Minutes Computer Time, Ice Cream Party for the Whole Family, Have a Treat After Breakfast, etc. Coupons are big in this house.

10. This morning Fisher and I drove down to the Mall of America for an Okee Dokee Brothers concert, and ended up staying for both shows. We had to go without Miss Alla, but don't worry, honey, we bought you a t-shirt!