Raise your hand if you’re a giant slacker and haven’t filed your taxes yet.
{Picture me waving my hand wildly}
I know I’m not alone – so we’re giving away FOUR codes for free preparation using H&R Block At Home Premium.
I used H&R Block for the first time last year, and I was really impressed with how easy it was to do our taxes. The $12.83 Jenny and I make on this blog each year (I’m barely exaggerating here, people) makes our taxes freaking complicated, and H&R Block showed me ways to simplify it – and, even better, helped us find deductions we weren’t aware of before, which saved us money. Always a plus!
I’m excited to use it again this year, too, because H&R Block has expanded the features of its iPad, Android and iPhone apps to include the ability to: — File any federal individual income tax return on-the-go in English or Spanish via iPhone or Android for free through March.
— Toggle between devices – begin a return on an iPad and complete the return via PC, or vice versa.
— Have your taxes prepared by an H&R Block tax professional in real time conveniently via video conference or chat using Block Live for iPad.
The H&R Block At Home suite of products have also been upgraded to include: — Real-time tax advice: H&R Block now provides real-time chat with a registered tax professional.
— DeductionPro: The popular tool for calculating the value of certain charitable deductions is now integrated into H&R Block At Home Deluxe and Premium.
— Time-saving interview completion: As a time-saving mechanism for returning clients with a simple tax situation, H&R Block offers a condensed interview based on information from a prior year return.
Want to check it out for yourself? Leave a comment on this post, and we’ll pick four winners on March 31. Good luck!
Friday night Bobby and I got all dressed up and went out on a DATE. The occasion: our 13th wedding anniversary, and the 100th anniversary of the Great Dayton Flood of 1913. Our anniversary is today, March 25th, and that is also the day the city’s levees broke 100 years ago, after a wet winter and four punishing days of unprecedented rain. Being a history nerd, I’ve always thought that was kind of cool. The shared anniversary, I mean.
It’s our lucky 13th anniversary!
Because of the 100th anniversary of the flood, there are plenty of exhibits on the subject to be found around town. Bobby and I got dressed up Friday to celebrate our anniversary by going to the Dayton Art Institute’s social media preview night of their 1913 Flood exhibit. I was interested in seeing an artistic take on this momentous event in our city’s history. It did not disappoint! I’ll tell you all about it in just a sec. But first, a little background for you non-Daytonians.
Dayton sits on the Great Miami River, and downtown developed at a place where five rivers come together. Dayton had always had periodic flooding, and had some big old levees to protect the city. The levees had overflowed before, but never straight-out broken. Compounding the problem was the Miami & Erie canal, which ran right through downtown (where Patterson Boulevard is now). When the giant storm system moved in on Easter weekend in 1913, it dumped three months worth of rain on the region in four days – onto cold ground that was already saturated from a snowy, icy winter.
It was pretty much the perfect storm.
When the levees broke, water rushed into downtown and into low-lying areas just north of the river. Over 360 people died, 20,000 homes were destroyed (not to mention businesses), and 65,000 people were displaced. A lot more people would have perished if it weren’t for a lot of heroic actions by neighbors helping neighbors. The rescue stories are incredible!
The flood is one of my favorite subjects and I could go on and on, but I won’t. You can find more information and some great pictures here at Dayton History.
But back to the exhibit at the Dayton Art Institute. It’s actually three exhibits in one. The first part is Storm, beautiful, very large paintings of storms by artist April Gornik that are intense and energetic. I am hardly an art critic so forgive my inept descrition – but they are striking to say the least. We weren’t allowed to take photographs of Gornik’s paintings, but that’s ok, because you should go see them yourself if you can.
The second part of the exhibit is Watershed: 100 Years of Photography along the Great Miami River. This was my very favorite, and most historical part of the exhibit. There were many amazing old photographs of the flood and its aftermath, paired with new photographs of the same modern-day locations, taken by talented Dayton photographer Andy Snow.
Both sets of photographs were absolutely amazing, the older set because of the drama and devastation they portrayed, and the newer set because of the clarity and artistry involved in creating the modern-day portraits. You must go see it! The exhibit contained photographs not from just Dayton, but from towns all up and down the Great Miami river – an entire region was devastated, not just a city. There were pictures from Piqua, Troy, Miamisburg, West Carrollton, Hamilton, Franklin, and more. The destruction went for miles and miles.
Another component of the Watershed portion was a display of old hand-tinted lantern slides depicting the flood waters and aftermath. The curator explained to us that these slides equate to the Powerpoint presentation of today. After the flood, these slides were used in the campaign to raise funds for the Miami Conservancy District to build the system of dams we have today that protect us from another catastrophic flood event. The campaign, with the slogan “Remember the Promises You Made in the Attic” (many were marooned in attics and on rooftops for three to four days) was wildly successful and raised $2 million dollars – in 1913 money – in TEN DAYS. Mostly from plain old private citizens who were affected by the flood! Here are a few of those convincing images (I took these photographs of the lantern slides with my camera at the exhibit):
Note the street lamps just barely above the water lineThis is fairly close to where I live today. But my house is on high ground and wasn’t built until 4 years after the flood.Aftermath: This neighborhood is just north of downtown, right on the river
Can you even imagine? I surely cannot.
The final part of the exhibit is called Riverbank: Exploring our River-Centered Development. This is an interactive display with images of the city’s river development projects (some that happened, some that didn’t) over the years. It was really interesting, especially for those of us who are proponents of downtown. But it wasn’t nearly as eye-appealing as the other two components of the exhibit.
If you’re in Dayton, I hope you will go see this exhibit! If you buy a ticket to the DAI’s exhibit, you get 1/2 off the exhibit at Dayton History’s Carillon park – which is going to be my next stop on my flood tour. I can’t wait!
Oh, and happy anniversary to my husband of 13 years! Since they had a flood 100 years ago and we have a snow storm for today, I sure am glad we had beautiful weather in 2000! Love you, baby. In flood and in blizzard (and sunshine, too).
Even though it’s still FISHING freezing up in here, Easter is upon us. We’ve got a little over a week until we celebrate Christ’s resurrection with our families. Personally, I am pretty excited because I L-O-V-E my weird family and our get togethers. And, my parents, having recently fled for the mountains of Virginia due to their retired state, will be home for the holiday. Woot!
But, I haven’t done one darn thing about getting an Easter basket together for the kids. Since I am typically under-prepared, I’m not stressed, but I DO want to get it done this week. I don’t want to do a lot of candy or spend a lot of money. Have you seen the giant pre-packaged Easter baskets they sell EVERYWHERE for $20 and up? That be cray-cray, people! Dial it down a notch! I want to give the kids a treat to look forward to but I still want to emphasize that this holiday is about something more – redemption, salvation, rejoicing, kept promises.
And seriously, the big kids both just finished off their VALENTINE candy stash. They don’t need much more! So, I’ve got some ideas!
Games, games, games! We are a GAME-loving family, and recently my kids discovered Mad Libs and we have been having SO much fun with them. So, methinks they’ll each be getting a Mad Libs set. We’ve already got LEGO Star Wars Mad Libs, but thankfully the selection on Amazon is endless so I know I can come up with something for each of them. Recently my pals at the Wonder Forge, who make the BEST GAMES EVER, sent me a couple to review as well. They have a cute Disney Easter matching game available at Target which is perfect for a preschooler’s Easter basket:
I love matching games, especially for speech and vocabulary. You know me! Always trying to make a game do more!
They also sent me a great new game for the big kids that has been a HUGE hit! Also available at Target, it’s a bit more pricey at $16.99 but your big kids will adore it. Both Joshua and Sophie LOVE it and it was a big help to us during all those SICK days we’ve had recently. It’s the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Clash Alley:
It is a little complicated at first, but my kids quickly got the hang of it. Sophie is only six and she even taught her favorite babysitter Krisha how to play:
Another game type by the Wonder Forge that would be perfect for Easter baskets are their game cubes. We’ve had the Busytown and Curious Georges ones for a long time and they are awesome! Four games in a cube and they’re just right for travel. They have several others, including Chugginton and Seuss:
Love ’em!!
So – my kids will definitely have a game of some sort for Easter.
Other ideas: I love these no-candy Easter basket ideas from my client Girls Crochet Headband’s blog (notice the Mad Libs, woot!). One features girls accessories and the other all manner of boyish items. Check out the post for more ideas (lots of dollar store ideas, too!)
Finally, I think my kiddos will get something to READ in their baskets! They both love books and the “I can read” and similar books are really reasonably priced- $3.99 or so – so I think we’ll do that. Like I said, I don’t want to spend a lot or distract too much from the real meaning of the holiday, so I think we’ll go with two items and one chocolate bunny or the like.
What are you putting in YOUR kids’ Easter baskets this year?
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The Wonder Forge sent me the Easter matching (which we’ll be gifting) and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games to review. All opinions are my own. And my opinion is that I LOVE THE WONDER FORGE!
