Opti, That's very insightful, the part about the e-mailing at the end the stress reduction associated with it. I'm at that same point myself and and hadn't looked at it from that perspective.
Maybe a break is a good thing at this point, a breather before the holiday season starts up. Can't figure out your H so won't even try but do know that being angry doesn't help things for you. Try smiling even when you don't feel like it and maybe it will become habit and brighten things up.
From your postings wouldn't put you at unrealistic, more like optimistic and with his propensity for the negative, that may seem like unrealistic to him when it's really not. You did good not getting into the past arguments, the past can't be changed so no use trying, can only work on improving our future.
Sounds like you have a good plan with the exercise, work, and book. Don't forget to throw in some fun activities for you and S4. You shouldn't feel bad about not returning e-mails for a few days. Look at is as trying something different and maybe a different response will come out of it. Don't know till you try. Pulling for you as always, RJ
