Did you get an actual subpeona delivered?

Try grants.gov and

AmeriCorps State and National Notice of Federal Funding Opportunity

I am pretty sure there exists a grant if what you want to do created jobs and helped the community, however I cannot remember what it is called.  At grants.gov you can do a keyword search for recycling and see what pops up.

Stacy Ann-  reading your post's in your blog is eye opening!  I mostly liked your 12/19 post.  I too try and think about my situation and that I could be worse off.  I do hope in your trying times you keep your faith strong as it seems you do.  It can be difficult.  Shesshe030 is right, you have us.  Know your in our thoughts. 

"Tomarrow, christmas is over and the fight for survival is on again for us all. " 

You hit the nail on the head with that one!  It's hard to keep the wolf off the porch when he is growling all the time in the distance. 

Tis the season...for reflection?  Spouse ,I think, is feeling a bit of the empty nest.  I remember when 15 was 13 and she gave me her xmas list.  That was the first list with no toys on it.  I could tell spouse was feeling a little down, so I asked him what is up.  He says that he remembers when the kids were little and there were toys played with and they both wanted to be home.  I forgot to mention that spouse is their step dad of eight years.  Now, 18 is going shopping with her friend and 15 cannot wait to go to her friends house and play rock band.  We have alone time more this year than ever.  18 got a job and started driving.  15 wants to hang out with the friends.  I put the brakes on when it comes to the friends as 15 would be over someone's house all the time.  There does have to be a balance.  I said to spouse, you're feeling a bit of the empty nest.  It is kind of new for you.  He said it isn't for you?  I said I have been doing it longer.  Not that one gets totally used to it but for me it is more of a phase or like a color that blends into another and fades away.  Letting go starts when the child pushes you away because they want to button their own coat or tie their own shoe.  I don't remember when 15 was embarrassed of me to hug her in public.  I don't remember when she no longer was embarrassed and I could hug her in public.  Do I feel the start of the empty nest?  Sometimes.  I think it is hitting spouse harder though.  This time next year 18 may not even be here.  My job is to raise 15 and 18 to become responsible adults.  If I pushed the child away so I could button the coat because I can't go on to that next phase I would be selfish and end up doing the child a disservice.  They do come back.  Proof of that is 15 no longer being embarrassed or telling me she loves me in front of her friends. 

Hey, the housing HUD is a good idea.  Don't ya think she should apply right away, considering if there is a waiting list it could be long.  When I took my two kids and left my husband  I applied and was on the list for one year.  Also, I totally agree with swallowing your pride and going to mom!   All of this would be temporary.  All that public aid is there for the ones who need it so apply to everything you can get your hands on!

Thank you for this post.  I was not aware the VA did those things.  I will do some research and pass what I find along to a relative who is in hard times. 

That's great!  I think I may enjoy baking more.  Your comment made me think of my elderly neighbor.  She is 92 and lives on her own.  Although she has family I am sure she would like a visit.  Merry Christmas.

I have decided not to make the bath fizzies for the relatives.  I have ingredients to make cookies so that is what I am going to do.  Someday I would like to try and make the fizzies.  18 has to work everyday save for Sat. till x-mas.  I am a little envious of her job.  I have put in applications and done call backs to over thirty places.  The paper says places are flooded with applications.  Even educated ones are having a hard time.  And the educated stay-at-home moms who are looking to go back to work are finding it difficult.  I haven't put in any applications in a week, so tom. I am going to get back to the search!  I'm watching Little House on the Prairie.  The Olsens' have poison ivy!  It reminded me of my mom who gets it very bad.  I don't get it so I always pull it up for her. 

Tonight was 15's chorus concert.  It was enjoyable, long and sometimes distracting.  I am still surprised, although I don't know why, at how inconsiderate people can be.  Kicking seats, talking through the performance, cell phones, crying screaming children, blah blah I could go on.  Do you know one year the music director had to remind the audience not to listen to their ipods during the performance because it hurt the children's feelings!  I realize these things irritate me because they are things I wouldn't do.  I try to remember that I am not the only one in the auditorium.  I try not to focus on the things around me that are annoying and to focus on the performance.  The one piece of advice my mother gave me was to live in the present.  It is actually hard to do.  But when you do, you get more out of your time.  That brings to mind the memorial day parade 15 was in a few years back.  The band held a ceremony at the river by placing a wreath in the water and then marched back to the cemetery.  A bugler played an echo in the cemetery while the other bugler played in the distance.  While waiting for the band to get to the cemetery I sat on the wall that surrounded the graves and listened.  I listened to the bugles, the breeze, and noticed the flags that stood in front of the graves.  Time stood still.  I know that is why that event is so vivid.  Because I was there in whole.  When I focus on the now those annoyances are far off in the distance.  One can get lost in the negative and being able to catch yourself and say pull back can be difficult.  It is worth pulling back.  Anger takes up a lot of energy, needless most times. 

Today I picked up a little table, in perfect shape.  Wasn't even dirty.  Although according to the city it is stealing.  As the curbside garbage now belongs to the city.  So I am a theif as well.  A local restaurant went out of business and they left behind a huge dumpster.  I had to investigate.  As it turns out sealed cases of plastic containers were thrown out along with twenty or so sealed boxes of cone water cups and sealed water filters, which I sold on ebay.  Could you make a living at this?  Probably not, unless you searched trash for eight hours a day and came up with some good stuff.  It is like a hunt, an adventure!  Some may think me insane or say why would you take garbage?  I don't take empty take out tins or stuff I can clearly see is bathroom garbage.  There are items thrown out that are clean and still useful.  My landlady threw out a dried and dying pine wreath, so I took it only because I wanted the metal wreath backing.  I threw the old pine out and made a new one.  Craft stores sell  that metal backing, or a metal box wreath frame as Micheals calls it.  So now I can go outside and collect pine cones for free and attach them to the frame, also free!   A little imagination and someone else's trash can become your treasure!

Friends can't be bothered.  That is what I think.  I also think they wearn't real friends.  It is super easy to become homeless.  If my husband lost his job and he was denied unemployment, we would be done for.  Remember that woman who kept her kids in the car while she worked coz she couldn't afford day care?  I understand where she is coming from.  Desperation takes over.  I know why woman sell themselves and people sell drugs but don't use them.  I am not condoning anything but I do see why they do it.  Ball players make millions per year, to hit a ball!  Doctor's save lives and don't make that.  Numerous studies are done that say housewives would make more than six figures, but when they try to re-enter the workforce they are deemed useless.  I wonder what the interviewer thinks of his own mother.  If the six figure earner lost his job he would still only earn what the maximum amount of unemployment is. 

When did excuse me change?  When did excuse me come mean "move, you're where I want to be"?  Why can't you wait until I am done and then you can pick your item from the market shelf?  I have had people reach across me to get something off the shelf, it's rude.  Why when you cut me off while driving and I honk at you, you think it is okay to honk back, when you are in the wrong??  Why do you feel the need to be two inches from me in the market line when I am paying for my groceries?  What is the damn rush?  What makes you so important that you can just assume ,in your arrogance, that cars will stop so you may jaywalk?  Or that you can just get right on the highway and other drivers doing sixty will slow way down.  God forbid you stop if the highway is congested and WAIT your turn.  I wait my turn.  I will go down another aisle in the market if you are busy picking out a cereal, and come back to get my cereal.  I allow ample space between us at checkout so you can privately enter your pin.  If the highway is congested I won't barrell out in front of you.  I will wait my turn. 

Boy it doesn't feel like Christmas is right around the corner!  Spouse sold a few things on Ebay so we were able to get some small items for 15 and 18.  15 has been having some friend trouble lately.  I feel fortunate that she tells me things.  I did not tell my mother anything.  My sister and I grew up with the "be seen and not heard" .  We were the remote control and the beer getters.  I don't doubt my parents loved us but I think they had a warped love. 

We live in a college neighborhood.  Totally awful!  It burns me up that these kids come to my town and treat it with such disrespect.  Puking and relieving themselves in our yard.  Vandalism.  My landlord now has no porch railing due to college kids kicking it in several times.  When they kick the spindles it literally shakes the house and makes us jump.  The tolerance of such abuse is what gets me as well.  Tolerance from the college and the citizens.  Unfortunately,  things are backwards today.  The one who complains about rudeness and disrespect is called a trouble maker.  Ever notice that a lot of older people are grumpy?  There tired of it, tired of being patient and tired of stupidity.  I can see spouse and I being one of those grumps as we age.  Too the grumps!

Has anyone seen that show secret millionare?  With or without watching that show I know there are people way worse off than myself.  I hate to sound like those, "there's silver lining on every cloud" persons.  I try to control what I can.  Our family has cut out wasteful spending.  And by that I mean, not renting a dvd.  Money is about choices and we all afford what we want to afford.  Even the little things like that silicon ice cube tray I got at the dollar store.  I didn't need it.  Isn't it a joke to feel guilty about a dollar?  At times I find it difficult to feel that holiday spirit.  Or ringing in the new year, when all that means is it is Jan. 1 and the rent is due.

I take advantage of free samples.  I like http://www.freestuffchannel.com/  and walmart's in stores now link.  Today I got an umbrella.  Sometimes I don't get all the samples requested, but all in all I would say I get 8 out of 10.  It is nice to get fun stuff in the mail once in a while other than bills. 

Check out my photo's at http://www.flickr.com/photos/stripes38

Kmart sells cocoa mix in a decorator bag for about 4 bucks.  It is really the simplest thing, just layering items for cocoa in the bag and wrapping a ribbon around it.  Tom. I am going to the craft store to look at prices for bags and the store to see if making them is really worth it.  I am also going to check out prices for ball jars and bath fizzy ingredients.  I'll probably go to the thrift shop to see there selection of jars.  Today 15 (I'll be referring to my youngest as 15) and I went to the mall because she had to return an item.  She took me to all the stores to show me the stuff she likes.  A lot of the stores are having sales.  Which is annoying because I am not in a position to take them up on their offer.  I make mental notes of these items 15 has shown me and one or two may make their way under our tree!

Thanks for the heads up.  Forever on the look out for predators!