It is hard to find zen when the dog is covered in poop

What a week it has been! I am currently drowning metaphorically and literally in marking....seriously Officeworks called me last night and said can I hold off on using all the red ink and that they are out of red pens!  In the current state of marking madness my husband has tried and I emphasise tried to help me as best as he can. Each evening runs like this, pick up kids, cook dinner, mark, feed kids, mark, bathe kids, put kids to bed, sit down and mark some more. It is Parent-Teacher Interview (or as it is more affectionately known in education world - parent-torture night!) season at the moment, hence the mad dash to get everything marked so I have something to discuss with parents in their five minute interview.  Anyway enough background information......... the night before my Year 12 Parent-Teacher night I was frantically finishing marking my students' practice exams.....hubby is "watching" the kids...he really was in the bedroom playing with his recent eBay purchase of electronic Battleship. The kids are in the living room and for a while there was calm...until Miss 6 yells out......Mr 3 has just done a poo in his pants (we are currently toilet training).....Husband is very slow to respond to this cry for help and took me yelling "I am trying to get work done here! Can you deal with it?" for him to tear himself away from his game and help with the mess. So Mr 3 is dealt with....well sort of.......the kids are playing for about 10 minutes when Miss 6 screams "Oh My God, Mr 3 is rubbing poo all over Alice (Alice is the 10 month old Labrador)"....pass the bottle of red!

I am not the only one......

A few weekends ago I went to the Graduate School of Education's Research student orientation day. It was a great morning. Firstly it was interesting to see all these people who are wanting to research education. Secondly, I am not the only nutbag out there who is trying to do it all! And the food......the food was amazing, God love Melbourne University you always know how to put on a spread! After coming home all excited about my research and that there were other mum's out there trying to achieve it all. I joined a facebook support group for women who are doing Ph.Ds and Ed.Ds. What an inspiring group. There are women who have worked full time, studied full time and raised three children and handed in their dissertation. Made me realise that I may just be able to pull this off - let's hope so. I must say though work is getting in the way at the moment. Term 3 is never a good time to start a course as it is notorious for being a totally manic term. It is week 4 and I already have a foot high pile of marking...deep breaths. Thinking that now is the time to find some zen..........might have to take up yoga or meditation. A friend at work came up to me this morning and said that I needed to take care of myself...I burst into tears...ok it might be time to put myself first for a bit......manicure this afternoon, me thinks!

Holiday what holiday?

I have been back at work for three days, feels more like three months....is it the end of term yet? Term 3 is always a tough term. It is dark when you get up, dark when you get home. Parent teacher interviews, interim reports and if you teach Year 12 the teaching of 20 weeks worth of content in 10 weeks. It has also been the week that has continued my thinking of OMG what have a I done? But I keep reminding myself it is about achieving balance and slowly chipping away at all areas that require my attention.

To give you an idea of how my start to Term 3 has been... I was under the impression that I had yard duty tomorrow. I work in a K-12 school and at lunchtime a secondary teacher has to help do yard duty in the junior school - always scary for me as me and little children isn't such a good mix - definitely do better with the older ones, but I digress. I also had a lunchtime meeting for a project that I am working on at the school. So as the diligent little bunny that I am, I send out the SOS email to my colleagues requesting a swap. After sending the email to the entire staff and after consultation with my head of department I realised that I in fact do not have yard tomorrow, nor do I have it even next Thursday...It is on a Monday Day 6...yep I am stupid! So I then had to send an apology email to the entire staff. On the upside I have learnt a lesson today....READ, Re-READ and Re-READ your timetable before sending an email. And to make things worse, my head of campus responded to my I am stupid email! If you don't know already, yes I do have blonde hair!

I have finally set up a meeting with my supervisor - yippeeee!

The OMG what have I done is starting to sink in....

I am at my next stage of my journey...WTF am I doing?????  I had lunch with a friend of mine today. I was her mentor many moons ago when we worked at a eastern suburban private school - which shall remain nameless. I am very proud of my protege, she is embarking on her second Masters degree...as someone with three I am a firm believer that Master degrees are like black shoes - one can never have too many! Anyway I digress.....She asked me today "Are you mad?" I think the answer is yes! I am starting to think what have I done? I can't do this.....I am a mum, wife, owner of a 7 month old labrador and a high school teacher - who has no time now...when am I going to squeeze this in...between 2 and 3am?????? But I also think it is stemming from the fact that I cannot get onto anyone at my university......seriously people I only have two days left of school holidays. I have been trying to arrange a meeting since our first meeting (in the first week of my school holidays - my school had three weeks) was cancelled due to both my supervisors being ill-  has anything been achieved since then? ...No! Maybe I am over reacting? me over reacting, never! But I feel that the time  I can give this course is limited and precious and I can't afford to waste time that is available to me especially in school holidays.  Anyway my anxiety levels are a tad high today - lucky I have stocked up on red wine.

To all my teacher buddies, enjoy the last two days. These holidays are the calm before the Year 12 storm.... I keep telling myself you will get through Unit 4 in 10 weeks, you will get through!  I know that between now and when the kids rock up on Tuesday I have two sets of SACs to mark, Unit 3 results to finalise and submit, write the Year 11 Biology unit plan (because if I don't it won't get done - I am starting to think I am too generous to some people!!!) as well as two middle school science units to write and prep for - nothing like leaving it all to the last minute!!!!

The Student Card......

Today it all became a little more real....the collection of the student card. I actually found my very first student card on the weekend. I can't believe how young I looked or is that how much I have aged????? I was secretly hoping that the university still had my 1993 photo....alas no...Who would have thought the University of Melbourne would actually launch itself into the 21st century and require students to have a non-dot matrix photo....So I smiled with my extra chins - baby weight that I cannot shift..it has been four years...dear God please taketh away!!! and had the dreaded photo taken...I am going to be stuck with this horrid photo for the next six years...lucky this is my last degree and the card can be burnt upon graduation!

The journey begins today........

Today I finalised my enrolment for my Ph.D in Education.....I am now thinking OMG what have I done??????? I am on school holidays...always a difficult time. The teacher in me rejoices, the parent in me cries out and wants to know why can't schools be open 52 weeks a year?!?!?!?! It is also a time that I start to think, Yes I can do it all (teachers will know what I mean, it is like when you get towards the end of the year, senior classes are finished and you are only teaching middle school and all of a sudden you have time to do your job and you start to think...ooooo maybe I could squeeze in that graduate degree). So can I be a high school teacher, mum, wife and Ph.D student...seriously how hard can it be????? Women can multi-task, right????? This is the beginning of my journey........

My aim for this blog is for it to be my psuedo-shrink....I honestly cannot afford my shrink's current rates on a daily basis! (My husband refuses to get a second job - men). It will be a place I come to vent, rejoice and share my pearls of wisdom (for what they are worth!).