So I brought the kids home And brought the kids home from school and all I wanna do is cry!! They don't do anything but make a mess they don't care what the house looks like and I'm just overwhelmed I don't know what else to do but cry. So much for having good days.

Don't cry. :) Children are revolting but these are the days you will look back on fondly come a day. These are the magic years. My mother told me this when I was poor and the kids had turned the last 20kg bag of rice I had into a 'snowstorm' to make snow angels on the kitchen floor. I didn't believe her at the time, but it turned out to be true!

I grew up poor. When we had money, mum would buy a cooked chicken from the supermarket, and we would go to the local lake and eat it, and slide down the hill on the paper afterwards. If we were lucky, we would have a bar of chocolate for after. One time my sister hit a wasp nest. Ah, good times. :D

The power would get cut off a fair bit. Mum would make a fire in the fireplace and we would toast bread in the dark and pop chestnuts from the tree down the street in the ashes, and talk about the olden days when nobody had electricity and maybe didn't even have a house, like during the great depression where they lived in caves and under hedgerows and had ground up acorns to eat. Mum would boil water in a pot over the fire, making hot cocoa. We were happy, eating tomato sauce on toast (actually delicious.) We found it fascinating, exciting. We loved it when the power got cut. Lots of hiding in the dark under blankets singing scary songs and telling ghost stories. . . Those were the special times with Mum. Those were the good times. We weren't poor. We were rich in spirit and good times.

Worry can make you old before your time. Fight it. :) Find a way to laugh at it. Where there is a will, there is a way. and meanwhile maybe you can google how to fix a power steering tube. I changed my laundry tub taps last week so that they had washing machine taps. Girls can do anything. :)

I am sorry you are having such a tough time. Have you looked into Salvation Army, sometimes they have funds to help pay people's utilities. Have you looked into Public Assistance? My oldest did go live with her grandma, but that was what was best for my family, you have to do what is best for your family. Hugs and prayers to you and your family.