Some of my beachcombing treasures.......

Sea beans (for more info, check out this site)

Sea glass

Largest piece of sea glass I've found

One of my school year goals is to have ds1 work on his stamp collection for at least 30 minutes each week.  He has his big cats section (divided out by type of cat) pretty much in order and he wanted to share some of his favorite stamps.  (These are not actual photos of his stamps as we do not have a digital camera or scanner.)

  Year of The Tiger stamp (Canada)

  Amur (Siberian) Tigers (Russia)

  (Malaysia)

  Snow Leopard (Russia)

  Snow Leopards (China)

We've also started trying to get all his Australian stamps in order.  He has 300 or more so this is going to be quite a chore.  Last night we were able to get through all the stamps that feature koalas and kangaroos.  We have a long way to go!

Ds1 is a stamp collector.  He has many topical collections (and when I say many, I mean MANY) ... tigers, lions, cheetahs, leopards, snow leopards, clouded leopards, pumas, mountain lions, cougars, Florida panthers, jaguars, ocelots, servals, lynx, caracals, margays, bobcats, gray wolves, red wolves,  Australia, Ireland, Iceland, Canada, dinosaurs, dragons, space, Ice Age, socked on the nose, Christmas, USA flags, cats, dogs, horses, Olympics, and pretty much any other stamp that he 'likes'. 

Last evening we attended a local homeschool expo of sorts.  The homeschool stamp club had a table set up in an effort to try to draw new members.  We are down to so few members and have had several families quit the club over the last year (not sure why).  Ds1 took some of his stamp collection to display on the table, as did some of the other kids, and stood at the table passing out flyers and ready to answer any questions.  We have a club meeting coming up on Monday so it would be wonderful to have some newbies attend as a result of last night's expo.

I hurriedly got his album ready for him yesterday (much faster than letting him do it since time was limited) and discovered that he has a LOT to work on.  He has numerous stamps that he needs to get into his display pages (he uses photo slide pages like  this for smaller stamps and 9-pocket pages like this for larger stamps).  I  also discovered that he has a lot more stamps that need to be soaked (removed from the envelope) than I thought.   And he needs to get his stamps to trade all sorted out as well.  All these discoveries prompted me to add an entry to my weekly lesson plans for this coming homeschool year ... I want him to spend at least 30 minutes a week working on his collection.  It's bound to prompt some great educational exploration  as well.  

I need to get back to my current cross stitch project.  I've been working on it a lot lately, but have taken about a week off now.  It's been a long time in the making and is for my oldest who is just crazy about all big cats.  It's called Astral Lions.  I actually purchased it several years ago (maybe 5???) at a Hobby Lobby where we were vacationing (sadly, we don't have a Hobby Lobby anywhere near here).  They had quite a few kits on clearance for $1 - yes, ONE DOLLAR!  I started this particular cross stitch last summer and then set it aside for many, many months.  I picked it up again several weeks ago and have thoroughly been enjoying the peace and serenity that stitching brings.  I'm about halfway finished at this point (I believe it's a 14x17) and hopefully I'll get it wrapped up soon!  Being able to mat and frame it is another story however.......