The front burner of katie's stove isn't predictable, it sometimes doesn't know the difference between low heat and high. So, she quit using that burner;

the stove's only large burner.  The oven also heats less than even.   Katie put the word out for a used stove, because a new one isn't happening - her monthly lot rent is ... IN$ANE!!!!  Six of one, and a half dozen of the other.  Cooking dinner is cheaper than takeout.  But is it?  Especially with the high temps - it will be in the 90s all week; the a/c doesn't run for free.

Katie finds herself questioning if having gotten off welfare is really worth the hassle.  When she was home with her child, their living space was neater; her child was free to either play outside, or come in and do something else.  Now, with working, her four - going on five - year old, is stuck in all year around, in structure, among strangers; that's  a bit young, for full-time worldly drama. The change in her child's demeanor hasn't gone unnoticed - not that it takes a kiddie head-shrink degree to diagnose the cause.  

Truth be told, katie has also noticed a change in her "coping" skills.  Gonna happen, when you're running in three different directions, at the same time.  And her boss wasn't happy with katie having to leave work, because day care called - yep, her child sneezed...oh my, the bubonic plague be upon us ;/  But seriously, katie has cause for concern - after all, she has no way of knowing what sort of homes the other children are raised in.  She couldn't help but to notice the animal hair all over the shirt of ... do the kid's parents know how to use the washer?  Perhaps, it's inoperable/under a pile of ... junk.  By the way, katie is well aware, there is one or two better day-care facilities in the area, but they might as well be 60 miles in the other direction; both are out of reach; the one was $1,200, the other wasn't far behind.  Too far ...  But even so, those 500k houses may look neat on the outside...

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,  hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also."  Matthew 23:25-26