Some of you know I have a blog, PlayEdVenture. Thought I'd share this recent post. Could be a great family tradition to start :) https://www.playedventure.com/p/create-a-nature-journal-with-your-grandchild

I've been asking myself this question alot lately, and realised I lost the art of play. When did I stop being creative and having fun ? What type of example am I setting to my kid? The parent & adult responsibility have a weight that seem to been extra heavy recently, and after finding this group and a few adjacent communities, I asked myself why not take a moment to play. Although playing looks different now I started a project where I can play with my boy in the same space, I'm turning my shed into "the ultimate family home gym" a place for me to train and do martial arts whilst building a full climbing are, including monkey bars, climbing wall and other activities that even I might play on. Sometimes I feel guilty when I tell my wife I'm going down to the shed to exercise, soon I will say me and our boy are going to play for awhile, and maybe can enjoy a bath or a book whilst we go off and play. I've got a new sense of joy, excitement and creativity back for this project!

I’m not sure what the weather is like where you live but here in Tennessee, the heat and humidity are back. Let’s talk about our favorite treats to beat the heat. Choose one from the poll and share your favorite memory, later today, I’ll share a fun kitchen activity or you can check out the Curious Kitchen #Day 3: Magic Oobleck for something fun.

Well, I didn't make it to my own event this morning, the Playful Shift and let me tell you why. Flee, my 25 year old senior cat decided that 2:30 a.m. was the perfect time for a refill on his food bowl, given his age and health conditions, and his very loud meow, I had no choice but to drag myself from bed and feed him and the other two cats. Hmm, I see a sink full of dirty dishes, which triggers "mom" brain to go into overdrive, let me just unload and load the dishwasher and I can go back to sleep. Oh wait, did Ken clean out the cat boxes, let's check - nope. Maybe that's why Flee was yowling - okay, better clean those and then try to nap before my 6:30 meeting. Nah, I'm up and wired, no sleep here, it's 3:30 now so let's check Skool and then maybe play a short game to wear myself out. Wait, how'd it get to be 5:00 a.m.? Hmm, if I'm going to have English muffins for breakfast, time to get them out of the fridge, shaped, and then proofed. Okay, it's 6:15 call in 15 minutes, perhaps I should take a quick nap - nope. Get on the call and then realize, my muffins are overproofing. Grab the cast iron skillet, start to heat it up - 10 minutes, lightly oiled. Dang, oil is smoking and about to catch on fire- pan too hot. Gotta save it. Pour out the oil, burn the finger, still on the call. Get a new pan started, turn the heat down on the old pan. New pan too small, finger burnt, muffins burnt - into the trash we go. Finally get the heat right. Woohoo. We have muffins. How was your morning?

If so, what platform or tools did you use, and would you recommend them? I'm currently building my own website and trying to decide the best approach. I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who have built a website themselves rather than hiring a developer. What worked well for you, what didn't, and if you were starting again today, what would you do differently? I'd love to learn from your experiences. Thanks in advance!