Thanks, everyone. I'm in a somewhat better frame of mind now that I had my two cups of coffee. I called my brother and he apologized for harassing me. My colleague with the "email problem" was also apologetic--and since she was my original market research mentor and I LOVE her I'll forgive her this once, but I love the suggestion to put an "out of office" reply stating certain email boundaries.

DH is the cook in the family, and he did a great job with smoked chicken. I made the corn and he picked up deli salads to save me that work, and everyone had a great time, but I confronted him about asking me and he said, with honesty, "It didn't even occur to me to ask you." He is having the time of his life up here. He's very gregarious and he was raised on Scottish parties and he LOVES being able to bring people together at his (our) house. Ironically, my MIL used to tell my how mad she used to get at DH's father for the same reason--he never wanted to go anywhere, but would always invite people to their house. Because he was alcoholic, it might have had something to do with not having to go anywhere after a night of partying, who knows.

I have a certain number in mind that I want to give my kids before I retire (kind of a "die broke" philosophy) and I'm working towards that. So that's why I agreed on the repairs to the house (plus, any landlord would fix what we had to fix). I'm about half way there. I have not been hurt or disadvantaged by any sum of money I've given my kids so far. And my son knows (and he confirmed this just last weekend) that he knows that ANY time we have to pull the plug and sell the house, he's fine with it--and he has to "sh*t or get off the pot" by 2022.

I am going to work on "NO" for all those other irritating expectations. I agree that I need to just collect what I can from my clients. I'm lucky to be able to work here and make a decent income at my age.