What should we do today?

At the beginning of the summer, everyone in our family shared one thing that we were hoping to do this summer.  The kids shouted out things like camping trips, bike rides, and ice cream parties.  I thought for a little while before realizing that what I really wanted was to have a few mornings when I would wake up, look over at Morgan and say something like, “What should we do today?”  These days (the days when there are no plans) are entirely too uncommon.  Like most people we know, we’re busy.  We’ve got 4 kids and all sorts of responsibilities.  When there’s not a board meeting or sports practice or play date on the schedule, there’s always a project that needs finishing.  Most of it is really fun and life-giving but the relentlessness of never having a day to simply “go with it” has started to be exhausting.

Monday was that day.  There was no alarm.  I opened my eyes, lifted my head so I could see over Cormick and Anders who had made their way into our bed again, caught Morgan’s eye and said those delightful words… “What should we do today?”

I waited, desperately hoping that I hadn’t miscalculated – that I hadn’t been fooled into thinking that we had an open calendar when actually, there were already numerous activities filling the day’s schedule.

She thought… and then… “I don’t know.  What do you think we should do?”  The words sounded so sweet coming off her lips.  I smiled.

We ended up eating waffles, taking the kids to a new park and shooting stomp rockets at each other, finding a geocache, playing soccer on a field that was too big for the 100 degree weather, swimming, eating leftover birthday cake and ice cream, reading a few chapters of Harry Potter, and going out to dinner.

I don’t think it could have been any better.