Summer is for fun – when we aren’t working, we can at least pretend to be in vacation mode.

Smoky Mountains, TN

But, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune like an amusement park. Here’s some free summer fun:

• Write, call or chat with a friend.
• See if there are free concerts in the park in your area.
• Go swimming in a lake with no entrance fees.
• Go on a picnic – take what you were going to make for lunch or dinner to a nearby park.
• Watch the stars – get skymaps.com.
• Cool off at the library. Most have summer reading programs going on. Ours has it for adults too.
• Color, draw or paint if you have the supplies.
• Go for a hike or walk.
• Bike a new trail if you have a bike.
• Learn the local flowers, plants and animals.
• Build a sandcastle.
• Go to the airport and watch the planes take off and guess where they are going.
• Take walks at night with friends or family.
• Some movie theaters offer free movies. Check your theater web site for days and time.
• Play Kick the Can or Ghost in the Graveyard.
• Check your paper for local festivals that are free. Zevents.com shows local events, some that are free.
• Volunteer.
• If you have the equipment – roller blade, croquet, badminton or volleyball.
• Play with the toys you have – bubbles, hula hoop, water guns, remote control cars. I am sure we all have toys that rarely get played.
• Many towns have Art in the Park where local artists display their artwork.
• See a sunset.
• Walk the boardwalk and people watch.
• Feed the ducks some stale bread.
• Make your own popsicles.
• Read outside.
• Check out which museums have free museum day.
• Play at the park.
• Go on a picture taking walk.
• Play board games or card games.
• Catch fireflies and set them free again.

What is your favorite free summer fun?

My family and I like to go out hiking and walking fairly often. Every time we go, we find something fascinating. We always look around so we don’t miss anything.

Last night we found a nesting swan. The nest was enormous tucked in the grass.

Enjoy your weekend~

Pix by Busy Mommy

As summer comes to an end often we feel it’s time to "get back to work." The time for fun and play is over. But fun and play can add energy to your life all year ’round.

It seems fun is usually fit in when we have finished our work. And we never seem to finish our work so we rarely allow ourselves to play. It’s time to plan for play.

Planning for Play:

• Find three fun activities or events in the weekend paper you’d like to attend and plan to do at least one.
• Gather an email list of friends so when someone has an idea like going to the art exhibit or seeing the Time Traveler’s Wife they can email the list and find people to go with. Our women’s group at church is doing this.
• Re-invigorate a hobby you have let go of and plan some time this weekend to participate.
• Find a fun activity that also interests one or more of your kids. Then you are still parenting and having time together, but you both have fun. My 15 year old daughter and I are doing Wreck this Journal and How to Be an Explorer of the World together.
• Take a class that looks fun. It’s harder to back out of it if you have paid for it.
• What did you like doing as a kid? Bike, hike, do crafts, do puzzles, play an instrument? Do any of these things sound fun now?
• Find a project that you can get lost in. Maybe refinishing some furniture, creating an herb garden, writing your memoirs, or researching your genealogy. Now add time to your calendar for your project.
• Since you want to keep healthy why don’t you find exercise that is fun? Dance around your living room. Take a hike in a beautiful place. Go bike riding with your kids. Find a tennis partner to play with. Join a hockey league. Play frisbee golf.
• Play with friends. Have a game night, a movie night, dress up and go to tea.
• Think about different activities. What makes you smile and gives you a boost of energy just thinking about it? Plan to do it at least once this month.
• Don’t always say no because you have things you "have to do." So the family has to get their own meal sometimes. Maybe the house doesn’t get cleaned one day. Perhaps you don’t sit in that boring meeting. This is your life, you need to do what you want to do once in awhile.
• Plan something to look forward to every day, whether it’s a chapter in a novel, playing a song on the piano, going out with friends, or going to your dance class. Make sure every day has something in it that brings you joy.
• Keep a fun file folder with things from magazines or ideas of activities that look like they would be fun. When you get stuck with what would be fun this week you can open up the file folder.
• And be open to spontaneous fun, like playing in the leaves.

I know there are tons of excuses why you can’t or don’t have time for fun and play. But, everyone needs downtime to recharge. Most likely you already do passive activities to relax like watching TV, surfing the internet, reading, playing Farmville, or vegging. And while that’s fine, you may find you get more energy pursuing active fun.

Often excuses are made because you feel guilty you aren’t being productive. But, if you know that a healthy human being needs time to recuperate from the daily stresses of life, then you realize fun is productive. From all the people I have coached, many who think of themselves as lazy, the problems rarely stem from too much playing. Problems arise from exhaustion and impossible expectations of themselves. Give yourself permission to play a bit, guilt-free.

What fun can you plan for the next few days?

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Photo credit: Will Game

The guidebook said it was going to be an informative walking tour of history and stone bridges.

As we hiked, we saw many places where signs used to be. But, it wasn’t until sign 14 that we saw any informative signs. And that was the  only one.

The white trees against the blue sky were beautiful

During the 2 mile walk we kept hoping to see the stone bridges towering in the sky. When the end of the road was gated off we had to turn back around. I was hearing some grumbles. The rest of the family wasn’t as excited about the butterflies and trees as I was.

At the next empty sign post, I announced a fake historic event that happened here about President Andrew Jackson crossing the bridge.  We found the stone bridges – tiny bridges we didn’t even know were bridges when we crossed the first time. But, on the way back we saw the stones. My husband declared that bridge we came to was built by the squirrel army.

I pointed out the spot where a scene from Goldfinger was shot. Could have been, we were near Fort Knox .  And the kids were naming new landmarks and telling the stories.

By the time we got back to the car we couldn’t stop laughing.

I still don’t know the history of that trail.