Fun Jar 2011

If this is the first time you've heard about the Fun Jar, let me give you the basics.  I'm an introvert with three fairly extroverted daughters.  I learned long ago that while I would love nothing more than to spend lazy summer days reading books and hanging out around my house, that doesn't work with three high-energy, fun-loving daughters.  Too much time at home equals squabbling siblings and one cranky mom. 

My solution?  The Fun Jar.

What's the Fun Jar?  It's a jar that contains all of the fun things we would like to do over the summer.  We take slips of paper, pass them around and scribble our favorite spots in Nashville on them.  Some things might make it into the jar four times (I get a vote, too!), others might only be submitted once.

Once we fill the jar, we draw a slip of paper out each Friday.  We then e-mail our friends (and write a blog post) about what we're doing on Tuesday.  The more, the merrier.  If it suits you to join us, we're thrilled to see you.  If this week's plan doesn't work - or doesn't appeal - there's always next week.

Why do the Fun Jar?  I've wondered this myself since we've now been doing it for seven years.  But here's my answer: my daughters love it.  When I tried to skip doing it this year, my middle daughter was not pleased.  And you don't want to displease this nine year old, let me tell you.  As I debated internally whether to trust my daughters and spend another year pulling slips of paper out of a jar to determine our fate, I thought about why I started doing this in the first place.

One reason loomed large: accountability.  If I told other people we would be at the Frist on Tuesday, I made sure we went, no matter how tired or lazy I felt Tuesday morning.

One reason I continued once we started: relationships.  Our Fun Jar outings have been the most concrete way we've found to mesh the various parts of our lives.  School friends, neighborhood friends, church friends - they all join us when they can. It's a blessing to see the disparate parts of our lives merge together over ice cream, at a park or in the sand at the lake.

How can you know what we're doing?  The easiest way is to subscribe to this blog via your favorite reader.  If that doesn't work for you, you can ask me to be your Facebook friend.  I'll post our outings on FB as well as here on this blog.  Or you can simply check in here if you have a free week and you're looking for something to do.

As we walked our neighborhood this evening, we brainstormed about the activities we want to place in our Fun Jar this year.  As school winds down, we'll make time one evening this week to fill our jar up with fun.  And we'll let you know where to meet us...