Too many e-mails?

So how many e-mails are too many from one single student?

I have one student who e-mails me (give or take) 3 times a day.  Always has a question on the readings, has questions on assignments, has questions on homework, etc, etc, etc.  I have reached the point where I  just plain don't feel like answering her back.  I ultimately do, but I've lost the need to e-mail her back ASAP.  I doubt many other professors  constantly and continually respond to their students, at all hours of the day and night, weeknights and weekends.   

Maybe that was my mistake.  By starting out with a good response time, I doomed myself.  Now she expects an answer right away, hence the constant deluge of e-mails.   

So I am weening myself off.

Well, weening from just responding.  Don't think I could ween myself off checking my e-mail.  But thats a topic for another post.

Dealing with job and outside stress

So my question for today is what are some ways other people have found that helps you deal with still being productive while working (bench work and teaching) while you're dealing with non-work issues.

I'll save everyone the current drama in my life except to say it deals with an extremely ill relative and an even sicker doggie family member.  For those who don't know me, I've mentioned at the very beginning of this blog that I have 2 fur "babies".   Right now, they are our children.  And one of them just got a horrible diagnosis so we have some major decisions to make regarding his care.

The reason I ask this question is because I'm sitting at work right now (post-doc work, in the lab) and I can't think about my experiments.  My notebook is open in front of me, my organisms sitting on my bench ready to be experimented on, and nothing is happening.  My brain can not function.  Honestly, I'll be amazed if this post makes sense to anyone besides me.

Add to that, last night I tried to work on my lecture for this week (genetics and inheritance) and I couldn't do a thing.  I spent all of my time googling potential treatment options (which only made me more and more depressed).

So now I have to teach a lab tonight that I haven't done any prep work for at all.  Have to lecture on thursday and just have the bare-bones of a powerpoint presentation ready to go, nothing else.

Do I just shut my brain off to everything non-work related and delve into work?  Unfortunately, I don't think I'm the sort of person who can do that.  So I guess the only option is just push through it all.  'Cause the world doesn't stop revolving just because you've been dealt a shitty hand.

Tired. So Tired.

I feel like I could sleep for days.... well, maybe just one. But still, the entire day.

Part of me can't wait until summer when the only thing I will have to do is research. The other part of me can't help thinking that if I'm tired now, only teaching one class, how in the world am I going to make it as a full-time faculty member? Having multiple classes to teach and hopefully a lab to run.

I love what I do, but where do you draw the line? When do you just say, enough is enough and for your own sanity lessen the load a little.