Family and Backbone

It has been a long two weeks since I have posted anything on this blog.  I did not mean it.  I do not have a topic at this moment, and I will have one by the time I finish this post.  I keep coming up with excuses.  For the last couple of weeks, I have been dealing with family drama, family needing rides, family not listening to other members, and so forth, yet I am the only one living in my home.
How is it that the single, childless one get stuck with all of this, and I have two able parents, both in their mid-70's, who can help them, if they let them?  I have so much on my plate, but yet every time I get ready to put pen to paper (Yikes, I meant to say...open up Blogger or MS Word to type), I get a phone call from my sister to pick her and her kids up, so she can look at a house (She has no car), yet she cannot keep $2 in her pocket, so she can ride the bus that stops in front of her door.  I would love to have that extra mode of transportation, in case something happens to my car.  I do not live near a bus stop.  The taxi is my extra mode of transportation, and they start off at $2.75 the moment you plop your bottom on the seat.   If I want to go to the North Market (my favorite place), it would cost me $21.90 to ride, and $21.90 to come back, making my total trip $43.80 (which how much it costs to fill up my gas tank Saturday).  I am sure that mom would give me a ride, but I do not want stop her from doing what she needs to do.
The oldest nephew, who wants me to pick him up from school or from a friend's house.  At 17, he still does not have his learners permit, and he has been staying at his friend's house more than he stays at home.  He lives with his grandparents (My parents), and they have legal guardianship over him.  Today, it was the "Can you pick me up from my friend's house, so you can take me to my mom's house, to get the money she wanted to give me, and then take my back to my friend's house."  "I understand you are working, but you really do not need the money."  That was his reasoning with me.  My mom want to pick him up so he can go to the store to buy something he needed, and she just wanted to make sure he bought them.
I have a planned work schedule for the most part, and when things come up, then Saturday is a day of make-up.  When that does not happen, it has to be real crucial when I work after coming home from church on Sunday.   I try my hardest not to do that, because it the Sabbath Day, and if the Lord rested on that day, so should I, and we have family day on that day too.  I eat dinner over there, and we all try to do something together.
I do things for my family because I love them, I am blessed to have them, but I refuse to be taken advantage of.  This is the only family I have who lives in the same city as I do.   While I do not mind doing things for my sister (who is actually my foster sister), she takes advantage by calling me to do something for her, then she has me take her to several places, or has me pick up someone.  Saturday, she called me to see how I was doing, and then dropped a bombshell on me, by asking me to pick up my other foster sister (Her bio sister), who had just given birth to a baby boy.  Towards the end of the conversation, she corrected herself and added that her brother in law (the baby's father,who I barely know) will be coming along, and oh...yeah, I need to go by their grandmother's house to pick up my niece, who had been staying with her.  On top of that, neither kid (newborn nephew and the niece) will have a car seat, which both are at my sister's house.   God must have intervened, said no, and gave me backbone, because yesterday, after I came home from a wonderful service, I called my sister back to tell the other one, that I have things to do today.   30 mins ago, I told my nephew that his grandmother WILL be picking him up instead of me, IF he wanted to get that money from his mom.  he called me back and said, OK.  So now I am working like I should, and I do not feel guilty for saying NO.
Now I need backbone to get these ingrates to help me with moving furniture.   Lord help us all.