I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the so-far extremely mild summer in my home town. This past weekend, our backyard was a veritable cornucopia of lawn games. We installed a new tree swing, watched clouds, and got mosquito bites. I played badminton and bocce ball. Badminton is definitely not my game, but I think I redeem myself with the bocce ball. I finally started to get the first stages of a tan. It was a brilliant time.

Sunday night, after a weekend of awesomely fun outdoor games, I realized that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had that much fun in a single weekend. I was completely tired out, but at the same time felt really refreshed. My joy was due in part to the fact that it’s been raining cats and dogs here lately and it was great to see the sun shining.

I also think a lot of the fun came as a direct result to spending so much time with friends. It seems like so often when I’m spending time with friends, we spend much of our time facing forward toward a screen which provides us with entertainment, but doesn’t really encourage personal interaction.

Even when I’m talking with friends, it seems like we’re not really talking so much as typing. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with text messaging. I think it’s sort of creative that a generation has developed a way of communicating that requires seconds to exchange messages. At the same time, texting or IMing really can’t take the place of actually having a face to face conversation with a friend.

The other bonus of the weekend was that I spent way less money this weekend than I have in a long time. The only real expense of the weekend was the $30 tree swing we built. It’s already worth its weight in gold. We ate at home – grilling out and sharing fruit, chips, and baked beans. There was no need to spend money at the movie theater. We were having too much fun outside.

By the end of the weekend, my face hurt from laughing so hard. We made so many memories and had so much fun just being together. So, go outside and have some free fun!