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As many of you know, tomorrow is 4/20. Yep, yep. I would like to share how I will be celebrating, although it might be different than you think.

Two months ago tomorrow, one of the greatest men I’ve ever known passed away. He was not just my husband’s boss, he was his mentor and friend – someone both of us would always seek out for advice. Out of respect for his privacy (and his family’s) I’ll just call him H.

In honor of his memory, I’ve decided to make a few changes in my life, starting tomorrow.

Take more pictures with friends

When I make mistakes (and I make A LOT), instead of dwelling on them, I choose to learn from them. One of the few regrets I have is not having pictures of us together with H. I found pictures of his wife and daughter, but none with him. It really would have been comforting to be able to look back on pictures, so this is something I’m going to fix in the future. While I’m fairly consistent about taking pictures OF my kids, I rarely take pictures of me WITH them. From now on, no matter how important (or unimportant) the event, if I’m with my friends or family, we will be taking pictures together! So if you know me IRL, just be prepared for that.

Random Acts of Kindness

H and his wife are the most selfless, loving people I know. Period. They have helped us so much, and we’ll never be able to repay their generosity. The best thing I know to do is pass a little bit of that love on to others. So I have decided that my kids and I will be participating in Random Acts of Kindness (or RAKs) at least once a week. For our very first RAK, we’re decorating bookmarks today with positive messages. Tomorrow we will leave them inside books at a local library. Hopefully, they will brighten someone’s day! I’ll have a follow-up post soon about different RAK’s that we’ve tried or plan to try (easy, cheap options that are introvert-friendly).

Gratitude Letters

This one is a biggie for me. I’m terrible at even the simple “thank you” notes you’re supposed to write when someone gives you a gift at a baby shower or birthday party. What I plan to do – at least once a month, but hopefully more often – is pick a friend or family member and write an actual letter detailing why I am glad I have them in my life. When we knew H was really sick, I wrote him a letter trying to explain our gratitude for everything he had done for us. I was told his wife was able to read it to him before he passed, and I believe they both appreciated it. I only wish I had sent it sooner. I want to make sure the people in my life know how much I appreciate them. I plan on encouraging my kids to do the same as well.

So whether you already have plans for 4/20 or you weren’t planning on celebrating at all, I hope you will join us in at least one of these activities, to celebrate the life of this incredible man. If you do, please let me know about it! I would love to feature some of your own stories and pictures in my blog.

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written. Honestly, I was afraid we were going to have to move again! Our youngest, Yoshi, had a terrible rash and we were convinced he was allergic to my in-law’s dog and cat. (We have three dogs ourselves, but they mostly stay outside.) After a quick trip to the family doctor, we discovered in addition to his allergies, he also had a sinus infection and some kind of virus! Poor guy. He’s had lots of medicine and is feeling better now, thanks to our amazing doctor. So looks like we’re able to stay a bit longer.

In case you haven’t read my other posts, here’s a quick recap: My husband and I and our four kids are currently living with my in-laws. All 8 of us are sharing a 4 bed/2 bath house, with approximately 1800 square feet. It’s a far cry from what we’re used to, but we’re making it work. We’ve been here over three weeks now and living comfortably.

I decided to document our living situation with pictures and brief descriptions, mostly for memories. But who knows, maybe there are some ideas in here someone else can use.

The first thing we did was get rid of most of our stuff BEFORE moving. I’m talking at least 80%. We went through each room, one by one, and decided what we absolutely needed to keep. We boxed up items we thought we wanted, but wouldn’t need right away. We’ve been going through those a little at a time, deciding what’s really worth keeping & what we should sell/donate.

We left some furniture in The Big House to help with staging, and we left a few “garage sale” items in the garage. We only brought the essentials with us to my in-laws. We are very fortunate that we’ve been able to take over a good portion of the house – two bedrooms, one bathroom, one room that used to be a covered patio, and a screened-in porch. In this post, I’m only covering our master bedroom and the shared bathroom.

Master Bedroom

Hubby and I are actually in the smallest room of the house, so we have to save as much space as possible. The bed we’re sharing is a full size to help save space.

1. I found this tall, skinny shelf hanging on the wall and we moved it to the side of the bed to use as our nightstand. The room is so tiny, this is really all that could fit here. It works pretty well though! Each shelf is iPhone-sized so it’s the perfect place to charge our phones overnight.

2. This entertainment center also houses all our underwear. Yep, that’s what’s in those boxes. We don’t have room for an actual dresser in the room. We had one, but it was so close to the bed, it wasn’t really functional. With this shelf here instead, we can actually move around the room! And everything fits quite nicely.

3. Our closet is pretty pitiful and not very organized, but hey, it works. My clothes are on the left (currently just t-shirts and sweat pants, until I am able to work again) and Hubby’s are on the right. We have our Very Important Papers on top, next to some completely useless vacuum storage bags. Seriously, do not get those. Our jackets and my purse are hanging on a hook on the closet door, which we never close. Oh, and the laundry sorter – that things is AWESOME! We have one in every bedroom.

4. This small desk was actually an end table in the living room. My mother-in-law graciously gave it up so I could use it as my vanity. By the way, that little cardboard box inside the drawer, on the right, is actually a tissue box cut in half. I’m so crafty.
The gray box on the bottom left is what most people would have in their junk drawer. I call it my what-the-heck-is-this-and-why-is-it-here box. Obviously, it’s mostly Hubby’s stuff. The brown box on top houses my straightener and curling iron for the super rare occasions I need to be presentable.

5. This is my side of the bed. Don’t you love my totally stable nightstand? I made it all by myself so I had to show it off.

Bathroom

It’s definitely an adventure going from four bathrooms to just one, but we’re making it work. The kids have been incredibly helpful, keeping things as neat and tidy as possible. Seriously, would you believe FOUR kids share this bathroom??

1. We bought this new shower head soon after we moved in. Before, I had to practically do a backbend to wash my hair, and Hubby had to sit on the floor of the tub! This shower head is about 4-5 inches taller, so it helped quite a bit. I also love the shelf in the window. It’s very convenient for storing our shampoos & soaps. Definitely something I want in the next house.

2. To make the shower more comfortable, my father-in-law got us one of those curved shower curtain rods. It’s like magic. It’s definitely a splurge item (I think around $30 or $40), but it was worth it for us. I also appreciate having an extra towel rack in the shower, although at first I thought it was a weird place to put it. With six people using this shower frequently, we are always running out of space to dry our towels. Maybe we can install an additional towel rack or two this week.

3. These are the cabinets under the sink. Not much to look at, but everything fits. Top left is all our extra shampoos, soaps, and such. Top right is our stash of toilet paper on top of a wire shelf we brought from The Big House. Underneath that is a few extra supplies.

4. We’re using the shelves above the toilet that we already there. I was able to find three small boxes for me and my two eldest to use for make-up, deodorant, moisturizer, etc. Hubby’s things are in the gray bag. I don’t even look in there, so who knows what it contains.

5. My tray of cups is my favorite thing about this room. Before, the toothbrushes & toothpaste were just everywhere (drawers, countertops, boxes on the shelf, etc.) and I wanted them all to have a home. I had seen some DIY project with mason jars, but I wanted to use what we already had available. My mother-in-law had this tray in the bathroom with decorations in it, and I got the idea that I could use it somehow. Then I remembered my sister gave me a set of glasses for Christmas that was missing a glass, and the box was just sitting in the garage. So I just arranged six glasses, put our respective toothbrushes & toothpaste in each one and *poof* so organized! It’s really convenient and doesn’t take up as much room as I thought it would.

6. Nothing really fun about the drawers in the bathroom, but here they are just in case you were curious.

Whew! So that’s it for those two rooms. Next up will be the kids’ rooms, including a special play room!