Our family has been living with our friends, the Allens, for almost two months now. So far we all still  like each other and nobody is searching for an apartment! Actually I’ve been having a lot of fun watching our families mesh together. Here are some observations from the past 60 days….

-When there are three people under the age of five in one house milk is a HOT commodity! We can go through four gallons of milk in a little over a week!

-Costco is our friend. 🙂

-Our kitchen floor has been cleaner than it’s ever been, even though there  now twice as many people walking on it! You could probably safely eat off it! Why you ask? One of our housemates, who shall remain nameless, actually LIKES to mops it, regularly. And I don’t just mean pull out the Swifter and do a quick run over, I’m talking about the down on your hands and knees with a bucket and rags mopping.

-Six (or is it seven?) personal computers in one household is NOT excessive!

-Menu planning, grocery shopping, and meal preparation is ten times more fun when done with a friend.

-Spreadsheets, when in the right hands, can be amazingly helpful tools.

-There is a synergy that I’ve noticed among us. I love it because living together seems to help motivate us to start and finish projects. We’ve gotten so much on the “To Do”  list done in the last two months, it’s amazing.

-At the end of the day, once the kids are asleep, it is so nice to sit and talk or watch an episode of The Office together.

-Kids are resilient. Maybe we are really messing them up, but it seems like they are adjusting so well to our combined household. They are learning to share and to care for one another. We do have our rough moments, but I love seeing the girls playing together or Carter caring for the girls.

-While many (many, many, many) people don’t understand why we are doing what we are doing, some don’t like it simply because it’s different from the status quo. Why are things that are different so threatening?

-Relationships take work, but when they are cared for they are healthy and well worth the work.

-Cooking for eight takes little more work than cooking for four…and it’s cheaper too somehow!

– I have learned so much from Heather about fixing little girl’s hair and mothering in general. It’s been fun and motivating to share ideas and parenting methods.

-Baby Korban is the most popular guy in our house. He’s going to grow up thinking everybody cheers when he enters the room because that’s the norm in our house.

-Many hands make light work.