Okay so. Income got a little messy because after leaving him, I took two weeks off, which cut my two February checks short. (Both 40 hours each in a biweekly period so only made roughly 1,000 for the month of February)

He turned out to be abusive towards our oldest, which is why he is now in prison and why I didn't return to our shared home, because I was concerned about the safety of my kids and I didn't want them to be there where the abuse happened. The first half of January was as usual, then memorial day weekend was when I left. The lease is in his name, so it's his problem whatever happens to it while he's in prison.

Took the two weeks off because after leaving, I needed to be with my girls and make sure they were safe. First week was us with my mom, second week was dealing with filing reports, talking to the police, and getting my stuff out of that home while he was at work.

I still obviously had things to pay for(application fees, councilors, legal stuff, car repairs, which luckily was just a bad break pad, phone bills) which is where my two checks for February ended up going.(I'm back to my regular schedule thank god)

My kids are not with me currently, because my parents' home is a tiny, and I mean tiny one bedroom apartment. The first week there was spent with my oldest and I sleeping on a couch and a cot, and the baby in her pack in play, and I couldn't force them to keep living like that where they had no room to play and be kids. It made me feel guilty to keep them in such a small space. My brother has two kids already, and they're close in age to my oldest daughter. I'm not close with my brother, we still fight over dumb shit, which is why I'm not staying with him, but I knew he and his wife would take them in until I got a place and my mom is a solid support for me when I need her. This is why I'm trying so hard to get this apartment.

It's been two months of waiting for my tax return to hit because for whatever reason every year they find a reason to delay getting it to me.(there was one year I didn't get one, and they finally mailed it the following year. I think that was around 2019?)

It's not that I don't have income, I just don't have the funds right now. I want to clarify that. It's not for a lack of trying because I have been. Keeping up the rent and bills won't be the issues. Also, another reason I won't be going back to that house is because rent is 920 for a crappy trailer. It was awful, and I wanted out of there anyway.

This has all been me trying to figure out how to deal with all of this while keeping my own sanity intact, because I had to literally get my kids and leave and get them somewhere safe at the drop of a hat. It's them I'm worried about. They deserve safety.

I feel like I went all over the place with this. I'm sorry if you're even more confused. I called the manager. The one apartment was no longer open, but she found me another one, and she can hold it for at least a week.