Darn, too bad I don't have a place in Illinois yet. (Although I am approved for a loan--yay!) Otherwise Tiff and the kids could stay at my house. Of course, all my cats and I would have to stay with you, because the houses I'm looking at are awfully small.

Really, though, it's a difficult situation. If she's just now decided to get a divorce, might you suggest that she stay put until the legal process is over (court appearances and such)? That would avoid her having to travel back and forth and would give you some more recovery time.

If she does make the move, I agree that you need to do some boundary-setting. (I'm going to have to do the same thing in order to live in the same town as my mother, who is a world-class button-pusher.) If Tiff is going to stay with you, she needs to understand that you'll have to help each other and that it's not all about her.

And seriously, once I'm back there, any time you're feeling frazzled, you and Jas can book a nice hotel in the city for a weekend, and I'll come down and watch over the menagerie. Or you can just come up to my place for a few hours--I'll brew up a nice cuppa, and you can snuggle with Hagrid.