Cosette

In June, my sister who lives in another town told us about a cat that followed her cat home.  She lives in an apartment complex near a large store and there are a lot of stray cats there.  I figure it is a dumping ground for unwanted cats.  

And then the cat started getting bigger......Stray cats don't get overweight for the most part.  Instead they get pregnant.  Which is exactly what this little girl had happened to her.  

We brought her home with us on July 27th.  It was pretty obvious she was pregnant, but I took her to the vet just to confirm.  While there our vet did a free X-Ray "just for fun" as she called it, to see how many fetuses there were.  She saw four, and said she thought the cat would be due in 2-3 weeks.  

We named her Cosette, after one of the main characters in "Les Miserables."  Cosette was an orphan, a little waif with big eyes, and so was our new little mama-to-be, so the name fit.  

With 3 weeks left to go in her pregnancy, she weighed all of 7 pounds.  My sister had, of course, been feeding her, but she still needed some fattening up.  That was no problem, as I put out unlimited dry Kitten Chow and a small can of wet food 2-3 times a day.  

Pretty soon Cosette's sides were sticking out and she developed a pregnant lady waddle.  

She took to laying on her side a lot.  I spent as much time with her in her room as I could, to gain her trust so that I would be able to handle her babies from the beginning.  I also got a thrill out of seeing her belly roll around when the babies became more active towards the end.  

Here is Miss Cozi in Mr. GV's lap, the night before her babies decided to make an appearance.

Next post:  kittens!!

CCHS Tour de Paws

Last fall, Mr. GV got an idea to help out our local humane society.  We had adopted twice through them already and were very impressed by how well the animals were cared for. We attended our first quarterly meeting and put forth the suggestion to them:  How about a charity bicycle ride to raise funds?  They said "Sure!" and so WE DID IT!

This event involved months of planning, loss of sleep (from worrying and from working), asking people for money and supplies (something many of us are not at all comfortable doing), and lots and lots of volunteers.  

But.....we pulled it off!!  In the end we raised almost $5,000 after expenses! Next year our expenses should be even less since we will know better how many  supplies we will need plus there will be items we purchased this year that should last us for many years to come.

The community supported us by many businesses becoming sponsors of cash and supplies, and the bicycling community supported us by coming out to ride, even though the weather report wasn't so good that day!  In the end we had 52 riders, which is fantastic for the first year of an organized bicycle ride.  

Riders get ready for the start

Mr. GV makes a few announcements at the ride start.

J said the prayer, and asked that the riders and volunteers stay safe and that all our animal friends would find a home.  :)

Our last rider in for the day.  He is someone living with  recently-diagnosed muscular dystrophy and did the 100 mile route on his recumbent bike!

An exceptionally happy, extremely tired Mr. and Mrs. GV.

Busy busy

Busy busy around here!  I have so many things to talk about, but I am too busy doing them all to write about them!

The biggest undertaking of them all:  We are in the very last few days of organizing a big event for our local humane society.  It's so exciting and I can't wait to share our end result.  

We also have taken in a few extra boarders---the cute and fuzzy kind.

So between these things, family events, and just normal everyday life, I'm having trouble organizing my thoughts right now.  

In a week or so I hope to be more rested and able to share everything on here.

See you then!

Gone gone gone!

I am constantly amazed how much stuff is in this house.  It never seems to end.  I am grateful for what we do have, of course, and don't want anything to happen to the items we cherish.  But sometimes it is just overwhelming.  

I know a lot of other people can relate.  Some people like to be surrounded by things, and others like a minimalistic look.  I like to think I aspire to be somewhere in between.  I don't have curtains in my house.  We have blinds and shutters, and that's all we need.  Curtains catch dust and pet hair, and that would just be one more thing to clean.  I do have things hanging on the walls, but not lots.  My mother-in-law has, in the past, threatened to buy something to put above my couch.  I happen to like my big, blank wall.  Ha!  

These things left my house last week!  Well, a few of them are still here but they are just bagged up and waiting for me to go to electronic recycling, the library, and the humane society.

 My mom is having a moving sale most likely in the next month or so.  It all depends on when she sells her house.  Meanwhile, my sister and I have been taking lots of things over and storing them in the shop until the sale happens.

Blankets, pillows, couch cover, rug.

A few things for the "free" box--bookmarks, stickers, mug, scoops.  

Items from the bathroom closet.

Sheets, kitchen items, blow dryer, and way too many makeup bags.

These are all my nephew's items, so my sister will be pricing them.

Swim shoes, tea strainers, cookie press.

Things one of my sisters is taking, including a comforter set and bed desk.  

Dead electronics to be recycled.

Items from myself and my sister to take to the humane society.  

Items my other sister is taking.

A few items for the Friends of the Library bookstore.  

So glad these are all going to be out of my house and that there are others that can use them!

Vegan MoFo

I am not participating in Vegan Month of Food (MoFo) this year for a variety of reasons.  One reason is because we are eating a rather boring diet right now.  I could report daily on what we are pulling out of our pantry and freezer and eating, or the fact that Mr. GV is trying to lose a few more pounds and eating a rather monotonous diet, or show you the toppings I put on my baked potato that I eat almost every day. But those tidbits really do sound boring to me, so I can imagine how uninteresting it would be to anyone reading this. 

Instead I'll be continuing with my regular ol' blogging topics, just general life around here!  But I encourage you to check out Vegan MoFo if you are veg or veg-curious!  

What we are not cutting back on

While we are cutting back on expenses around our house, there are a few things we don't intend to cut back on.  Those are the ones that are most important to us:  eating healthy and making sure our non-human animal friends eat healthy. 

For us, eating healthy at home means plant-based, mostly whole foods, organic when possible.  We are not perfect of course!  We have a freezer in our garage that has some processed foods in it, and I admit to eating Boca Chik'n patties sometimes.  We are eating out that freezer slowly though, and not buying near the amount of processed foods we have in the past. When we go out to eat at vegetarian restaurants, often we get dessert and other less healthy foods, although always plant-based. We are trying even harder to eat healthy right now, as we are both trying to lose some weight.  

At least twice a week I shop for produce, which usually includes sweet potatoes, baking potatoes, broccoli, baby carrots, kale, bananas, and oranges. Sometimes we also get apples, grapefruit, cucumber, melon, spinach, celery, avocado, and herbs.  I wouldn't mind being one of those people that goes to the grocery once a week or even once every two weeks, but there's just no way with the amount of fresh produce we eat.  

I want to get back to making my own bread, but I'll be honest with you:  I hate running the oven when it's hot outside.  So for now I'm buying whole wheat bread at the grocery, which costs us nearly $3/loaf.  I know I have flour in the freezer so I really should start making that bread again.

The other item I mentioned that we won't compromise on is taking care of our four-legged friends.  Our dogs eat dog food that we have to order online, and it is not cheap.  But we feel it is the best for them so that will continue to happen.  I also buy them natural dog treats, such as dried sweet potato slices.  I plan to try making those myself, but again, I've got to run the oven for it.  

The cat we have added to the family (more on that in another post) gets food from the grocery store.  Right now she requires a special kind of food, and we supplement it with Newman's Own canned food.

We could put our grocery cash in an envelope and live that way, but so far I am just keeping up with what I spend by writing it on paper.  (I'm an old-fashion paper kind of girl, and not really into spreadsheets.) We don't have a budget yet for a grocery category, but we plan to within the next couple of paychecks.  Right now we're just getting a feel for what we spend.  

Anybody want to pipe in with what they will not compromise on in their budgets?  

Money Talk

(Note:  I have some family members who read this blog.  Don't think that we are going without, or that we are in dire financial straits.  Ya'll know we are fine.)  

So, now that our 20th anniversary road trip is over and paid for (partially out of savings, as we planned) it's time to get serious about saving more money.  Mr. GV makes a good living.  I certainly cannot complain about that.   

Although I don't want to get into specific numbers regarding salary, I do have a breakdown of what percentage of his check actually gets deposited into checking.  

This is what comes out before the money comes to us for our usage:

Taxes 19.2%

Retirement 19%

Savings/Medical FLEX account 8%

Insurances 3.6%

Total=49.8%, so let's call it 50%.  

So that leaves 50% of his income to pay the bills.  The only debt we have is our mortgage.  Our other debts (student and auto loans) have been paid off for several years.  We use credit cards but they are paid in full every month, and have been since we've been married except for two times:  the first few months of our marriage when I was fresh out of college, he was in college, and we had a wedding to pay for AND one month when we moved for his residency, he didn't get paid for 6 weeks, and I had yet to find a job in our new state.

Our standard bills are: mortgage, utilities, phone, trash, Internet, online photo storage, Hulu, Netflix.  

Then you have the variables:  groceries, household items, home repairs, pets, donations, bicycling costs, gifts, auto repairs, clothing, home improvements, post office, restaurants.  

We do just fine.  And then, like any other household, an unexpected expense comes along.  In the last couple of months we spent over $2,000 on car and truck repairs, and over $3,400 on a new heating and air unit.  And we have that money in either short-term savings or long-term (emergency fund.)  The a/c, for instance, came out of the emergency fund. 

Of course I am thrilled that we have saved the money to pay for those items. Thrilled!  But we are also facing the reality that there are several repairs/replacements that need doing around our house and that in the next few years we are probably going to need a new car.  So we would like to build up that savings as much as we can.

Which means going on a tighter budget.  Strike that, it means going on a budget at all, which is something at which we have never been good.  We tend to go on a budget, then fall off the ol' wagon within a couple months.  

So, expect some posts about our money-saving adventures in the near future. I would love to hear how others approach budgeting!