Elena 
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1. Rosie and Noah ran their very first 5K races in the pre-season. They did well for such a hot and muggy day. Noah’s girlfriend, who is also a runner, joined them.
2. Rosie has been so blessed to be running with a great group of girls this summer. They are high school girls who will be running with the high school team this fall, but they have included Rosie even though she will only be in 8th grade and not competing with them yet. Tomorrow they are having a pancake breakfast and swimming party after practice and Rosie was so excited to be included!
3. When I was a young 20-something just starting out in the working world, I had the misfortune of finding employment at an outpatient psychiatric center. I made a couple of strategic mistakes there that I learned from quickly. My first mistake was accepting a job that didn’t have a defined set of responsibilities per se. My job was to float around and help the other 10 medical secretaries with their jobs. It was like having 10 different bosses, and no friends or peers. The problem with that was if something was done incorrectly, incompletely or if there were any other problems, I was also the natural scapegoat. The second mistake I made was trying to hang on to that job when it became clear that all of that scapegoating was going to lead to my discharge. You should never stay in a job where you aren’t valued or wanted if you can possibly avoid it.
4. This comes back to me because all these years later, I find myself in a similar situation and I saw one of my kids go through it at his job this year. I think the rule of thumb here is, if employers have a set position to offer you, they will. But be very wary if they keep you dangling. If you live long enough, it’s great to be able to use these life lessons again.
5. I wrote yesterday about a show we are enjoying on Hulu. (When I say “we” I mean the adults in the house because in no way is this appropriate for children or young teens.) We also started watching the show 11.22.63 starring James Franco. As the title would suggest, it’s a show about the Kennedy Assassination with a twist. James Franco is a modern school teacher who travels back in time through a “rabbit hole” that takes him to 1960. His original plan was to try to prevent the assassination, but he gets a little sidetracked and decides to prevent the murder of a family in Kentucky instead. We’re only on the 2nd episode but the idea is very compelling. The most interesting concept in this time travel story is that the closer he gets to changing something historical, the “past pushes back” against the change and accidents, injury and near misses occur. So it’s a bit of a thriller as well. Mr. Pete is certainly enjoying all of the old vehicles in the production.
6. In case you haven’t heard – Amazon Prime Day is July 16-17 this year. If you’ve been curious to try Prime, now is the time. I’ve been a Prime member for a number of years. I use the streaming t.v. programs in my homeschool (currently viewing the Shakespear selections for Rosie’s study this summer) and I buy a lot of my school supplies and Noah’s college texts through Amazon taking advantage of Prime for shipping and deals. I more than make up my annual Prime fee.
7. If you’re teaching General Science this year from Apologia’s General Science Text, I have a syllabus that I used for co-op last year and a Youtube list of videos that I used in the course. They are available to my e-mail subscribers, and you can sign up here.