Category Archives: Life

Five Minute Friday: Story

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5minutefriday

Five Minute Friday was started by Lisa-Jo Baker about a year ago, where hundreds of people write for five minutes flat on the same prompt that she posts on her blog at 1 minute past midnight EST every Friday.  She describes it as a writing flash mob.  I’m still trying to get used to the idea of “no extreme editing; no worrying about perfect grammar, font or punctuation. Unscripted. Unedited. Real.”

If you want to join in, click on the Five Minute Friday icon at the left for all the details.

Here we go…

TODAY’S PROMPT: STORY

BEGIN

I love a good story, with its many twists and turns and unique characters.  Especially when an author uses their words like an artist uses a paintbrush.  With every stroke the story unfolds as a beautiful picture comes to life on the canvas.  Some days I read a book and I can’t put it down, saying to myself “just one more chapter, just one more chapter.”

My life is a story that is not yet finished.  Each day is a new page, each year a new chapter.  Even though I am surrounded by unique characters, and sometimes the twists and turns are so surprising, I don’t find myself so eager to experience the next chapter.  But I cannot put this story down, and say that’s the last chapter, I don’t want to read anymore.  I need to continue to turn each page, each day, and read it carefully so that I understand what is being said, follow where the story will continue, or anticipate when it might veer off into an unexpected journey.  I need to savor the interaction with the characters, because in any chapter they may move away or just be gone.  I need to live my story in such a way, that the characters I leave behind will want to tell my story again and again.  That they will smile and laugh when they remember what a character I was. I don’t know when the end of my story will be, but when the Author is finished, I hope He will say, “now that was a good story.”

STOP…PENCILS DOWN

Chicago Bears Training Camp

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My family went to the Staples Bears Training Camp presented by Chase on the campus of Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois, and we had a lot of fun.  This is the 9th consecutive year of them being at Olivet Nazarene.  This training camp is open to the public, and there’s free admission and free parking, it’s a great time for the family, especially Bears fans.  The training camp started on July 30, and ends today, August 19, 2010.  

There are three different practice times, Noon, 3 p.m., and 7 p.m.   The gates open one hour prior to start of practice and close one hour after.  It’s a lot of fun to watch them practice, and you get a chance to see your favorite players.  There are several Theme days, where they have extra activities going on throughout the camp ground.  There is the Staples Kids Only Autographs on select days.  Where the first 150 kids ages 4-12, in line will receive a pass for the autograph session for that day.  Kids are allowed one autograph per person, but they are not able to take pictures with the players.

There is also the Staples Bears Pride Poster Contest on select days as well.  Kids ages 4-12 can make a poster, and are entered into a random drawing.  The winners receive a pass to enter Staples “Front Row Kid Zone” along the players exit from the field.  There were several booths and tables with free things available.  We each received a Bic marker and a folder for  autographs.  There were free roster posters with pictures of different players.  Staples had a booth and were giving away free Bic markers in all kinds of colors.  I was excited about the free markers!!  Staples also had a Back to School day, the day before we went and they were giving away free  Bears/Staples brand backpacks to the first 500 kids.  I didn’t know about it until after we went.  The website didn’t list that as one of the theme days until probably the day before.

Jewel-Osco sponsers the Inflatable Kid Zone where they have this huge obstacle course shown here with Benji sliding down.  They have other inflatable things as well as a basketball toss and football toss.  Benji and Elijah really enjoyed this.  We were there at a good time, since there weren’t a lot of kids waiting in line.  Throughout the camp grounds there are concession stands to purchase food, and they also have hydration stations for fans to access free water and Gatorade. 

There is also a Pro Shop that has everything Bears to purchase, hats, mugs, footballs, jerseys.  We were there the second to the last day, and they were selling the Training Camp T-shirts for $10, which had originally been $25.

There’s just enough things to see and participate in.  The day we went was very pleasant, the sun was warm, but there were some areas of shade to cool off.  Of course Elijah thought it was the “best day EVER.”  It is a lot of fun, especially for the younger kids.  For anyone in the southern suburbs, its a pleasant drive to Bourbonnais.  I look forward to going again next year.

Tax Season

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This year I went back to using my favorite tax program, Turbo Tax www.turbotax.com. They had a couple of new things this year. One thing was the option to get your refund put on a Green Dot Prepaid Debit Card. This is especially helpful for people who don’t have a bank account.   Otherwise, you can have your refund direct deposited into your savings or checking account.  They also still have the option to have the TurboTax fee deducted from your refund. I have done that in times past. There is an additional $29.95 fee for this service. TurboTax has really made doing your taxes easy. I personally find it enjoyable, I look forward to doing my taxes every year. Having TurboTax walk you through the filing is so helpful and beneficial. This year we actually received a new “making work pay” credit just by answering a few questions.

For my state taxes, I usually just file for free on the Illinois Department of Revenue website http://revenue.state.il.us. I recently learned that our state has an Education Credit which anyone, including home schoolers can use. You will be allowed 25% of your student’s qualified education expenses after the first $250. Your total credit may not exceed $500 in any year regardless of the number of qualifying students. Expenses included in this credit are tuition, book fess and lab fees. On the website there are publications that you can review for more information. For Home School review Publication 119, for regular school review Publication 132. Illinois may not be the only state that offers this credit, check with your tax preparer or use TurboTax to file your state taxes and they will let you know if your state is eligible.

One benefit of using TurboTax is that you can go through all the questions before you have to pay for the use of the software. This year I actually went through the state tax filing to see how the education credit worked. When I went to file my taxes TurboTax was going to charge me $29.95 to file the state. But knowing I could do it for free, I went back and deleted the state tax info and then proceeded to file my federal taxes.

I highly recommend using TurboTax, the process is so efficient, quick and easy.

What a Concept!!

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The other day I was talking with the kids about going to the store.  Olivia had received a shirt for her birthday that was the wrong size, so she needed to take it back.  Benji then says, “Yeah, mom, I need to take my shirt back too, I don’t want it anymore.”  If that wasn’t funny in itself, but I looked at the shirt that he was wearing, and I quickly calculated that it was about 12 years old!!  It’s a red polo shirt with a black, grey and white stripe across the middle.  I had to pull out a photo album to see if that was correct, 12 years?  Yes, I have a picture of Joshua wearing it for his 2nd birthday and he wore it until he outgrew it, Elijah wore it, now Benji is wearing it.  It’s still in good shape.  But I had to laugh, wouldn’t it be nice if we could return hand-me-down clothes back to the store because we don’t like them anymore…after 12 years of use?!?!?!