Another close-to-Canadian here, I grew up in Alaska and now live in the Seattle area.
Welcome to the board, you and all the young uns! What a full house and life you must have, but take time to quilt even if you give the results away, it is still "me" time. Keep that in mind, it is supposed to be a good time and even though there may be times when we grit our teeth to get through a project or stage, my best advice is to stop for a bit when you are having problems. All I've generally gotten when I forced myself to work through something is more problems... But I've had decades of a fun and fascinating hobby that ends up with generally useful results!