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!