I've always thought of my quilting as my sanity saver and on many occassions, it has been just that. With that in mind, I always have a shoe box or two of pre-cut easy to sew quilts ready to stitch should the need arise. Then I can just grab the box and stitch the frustrations away. These easy sew quilts often end up as Community Quilts because although we are experiencing turnmoil in our own lives, there are often those out there with even bigger problems who might really appreciate a quilt. It has always worked for me. As for your poor teacher husband, as a recently retired teacher, I can empathsize. Teaching never got easier even with lots of experience. They just always seemed to expect more and often you were to make do with less. The lack of communication and last minute decisions about teaching assignments and locations was another huge stresser. Hope all this gets settled reasonably and soon.