Ballistics gel dolls

Yesterday as I was driving the children to church, they were talking about how popular Legos are. We were discussing how long they've been around and how there have been other companies who have tried to imitate Legos throughout the years (Tyco, Mega Blocks, etc.), but we don't like those as well as true Legos.

Christopher said if he could, he would build a machine that would copy the best Lego sets and their instructions so that he could have as many as he wanted, but Micah said that would be copyright infringement. (We have talked a lot about this since we live in an age where it is very easy to steal someone else's ideas. We want the children to know that copyright infringement, plagiarizing, and other forms of illegal copying are bad . Too many people think it's ok to copy other people's ideas, but it isn't.)

After a discussion about the differences between a copyright and a patent, we talked about how the most successful, long-lasting toys throughout the years have been building-type toys. The things that come and go are the fast-paced toys that kids get bored with after a few weeks. They also seem to break more easily and end up increasing our land fills by millions of pounds each year, I'm sure. On the other hand, Blocks, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Legos and other building toys have held their interest for generations. I encouraged the children to think of some type of building toy that they could create and market one day.

They were very thoughtful for a bit and finally Daniel said, "We could make a doll." I was immediately thinking... "Oh, great. I can't wait to see where this goes. How are they going to make a doll into a building toy?"

All at once, everyone was talking...

- "Yeah, and it could have removable parts - arms, legs, hair, and everything."
- "And we could change it's head to different faces!"
- "And it could have different clothes, too."

After a few minutes, Christopher (the future doctor) said, "And we could even make little organs to go inside its body. We could have a liver, kidneys, a stomach, a heart, and other body parts and then we could take those out of the abdomen and study them. Then it would be a toy that would count as schoolwork, too!"

I just KNEW it would come to this...

So then Micah (the future scientist) said, "Yeah, and we could make the whole thing out of ballistics gel and then people could shoot the doll and study what happens to all the organs after you shoot it!"

Of course Hannah (the future Mommy who now loves dolls at age six) was going crazy at this point... "NO! You can't make a doll that you'll shoot. And I don't think you should take its organs out to study them, either!..."

Now I assure you that my children are not sociopaths. They are just very creative children with active imaginations. And I did ask them to think of a toy so I guess it was my own fault, after all. Fortunately, it's not a long drive to our church and we arrived just in time to end the conversation so that the children could go in and converse about something other than ballistics gel dolls, I'm sure.

Sonya Haskins

www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

National Ammo Day - November 19

I just thought this was interesting. : )

From www.ammoday.com....

A brief explanation - What is National Ammo Day?

November 19 is National Ammo Day.

It is a nationwide BUYcott of ammunition. You buy ammunition. 100 Rounds a person.

The goals of Ammo Day:

The goal of National Ammo Day is to empty the ammunition from the shelves of your local gun store, sporting goods, or hardware store and put that ammunition in the hands of law-abiding citizens. Make your support of the Second Amendment known--by voting with your dollars!

There are an estimated 75 MILLION gun owners in the United States of America. If each gun owner or Second Amendment supporter buys 100 rounds of ammunition, that’s 7.5 BILLION rounds in the hands of law-abiding citizens!

The gun/ammunition manufacturers have been taking the brunt of all the frivolous lawsuits, trying to put these folks out of business. Well, not if we can help it! And we CAN help it by buying ammunition on November 19!

Disney Homeschool Days - January 2010

The flu has come... with horrible lower back pain

I left the house around 11:30 on Friday feeling fine. My husband and I only have lunch about once every two months so we had arranged to eat lunch together, then I was going to pay bills and then work on my new book for a few hours. During lunch, the tea tasted way too strong so I didn't drink it and despite my delicious food, I started feeling nauseous so I couldn't eat. I had also started developing a headache so we requested a to-go box. Chris headed back to work and I headed out to pay bills.

Within the hour, I started feeling much worse. A LOT worse!

I quickly paid a few bills and then came home and went straight to bed. It was about 3:00. By the time Chris came home from work at 5:30, I was freezing, every part of my body hurt, I had a horrible headache, and I had developed diarrhea. We checked my temperature and it was 102.5. I had gone from feeling fine to feeling like I might die in just a few short hours. Due to my chronic health condition and lowered immune system, Chris called my doctor and he gave me some Tamiflu - antivirals. I think I would be much sicker now if I hadn't had those.

Friday night I spent the whole night freezing to death while Chris tried to comfort me. My whole body ached and my lower back was absolutely killing me. He tried to rub it, but every time he touched me it hurt.

Yesterday, last night and all day today I've remained miserable so I've been in bed most of the day. Since we're 99.9% certain that I have the flu (as certain as you can be without the official test), I expected the sudden onset, aches and chills, headache, etc., but I never anticipated the horrible pain in my lower back. I didn't know that was associated with influenza so this evening I've felt well enough to stay up a little while and I have found a few other bloggers who have said that one of their main symptoms was lower back pain. Interesting. Anyway, I just thought anyone else who is experiencing this might want to know that yes, it is possible to have horrible lower back pain with the flu. Other than the aches and chills, one of my other main symptoms has been absolutely excruciating stomach pain - like little gnomes are in my whole abdomen dancing with little knife-shaped shoes and poking up into the air with little knife-fingered gloves!

Well, my energy is sapped. I have to rest again. I hope to feel better in a few days, but meanwhile I'm thankful that at least tonight I don't think I'm going to die anymore like I did yesterday and even earlier this morning!

Sonya