“What are you going to do this summer?!” I have a two answers for that. My half-true answer and what I really want to do.

What I say comes out something like this: “We have a few vacations planed, we have passes to a few places that we can visit during the day and I’m sure the kids will do a few camps too! We can’t wait! It’s going to be so much fun!”

What I want to tell them: “We are going to do absolutely nothing.”

Wait. Aren’t you the Mom that travels with kids, like all the time? Aren’t you the Mom that cooks every night with the kids in the kitchen? Aren’t you the Mom that has a million and one ideas for things to do with kids? Aren’t you the mom with kids in a gazillion sports and activities? Aren’t you the Mom with four kids? Yup. That’s ALL me.

But I am exhausted. (I seem to say that a lot.) And honestly, I think my kids are exhausted too! Everything is over and we get a break. No 8am school, 7pm baseball, 5pm gymnastics or 3pm Girl Scouts. I want to do nothing. They want to do nothing. So why are we fighting City Hall? Let’s just do nothing!

And by ‘nothing’ I mean, let’s just not plan anything and see where the days take us. Imagine that. The freedom to do WHATEVER YOU WANT WHENEVER YOU WANT. I think that might even be called a vacation! I’m embracing the concept for what it is. A time to mentally recharge, just be and live in the moment.

I don’t want to wake up to an alarm.

I don’t want to HAVE TO BE ANYWHERE if I don’t HAVE TO BE THERE.

I don’t want to pack ten things into my day if we don’t want to.

Summer camps are honestly WAY to expensive and I would rather save my money and take a kick-ass vacation with the money I’m saving. (And plus, I can’t send a 3-year-old to camp, so why would I send 3 when I will still have one at home. Not a vacation for me.)

Isn’t that the point of a vacation?

Yes, I am one hell of a good planner, and yes, in order to go on a vacation, one I can afford, I must plan in advance (and we do have one coming up). But, for the majority of the days, and even when we on an actual vacation, we are going to slow down. Nothing doesn’t have to mean anything. We can hop in the car and drive to the beach. If it’s raining, we can play hotel at home, build forts, watch 80’s movies and order pizza. We can have a lemonade stand. We can read books we WANT to read. We can count how many green beans we grew in our garden and then cook them for dinner. Nothing doesn’t mean boring. I hear the words nothing and think freedom to do what we WANT to do.

I want to play with my kids and do nothing this summer. I’m sure our summer will be busier than ever, but the reality is, we will write our own summer story, one day at a time. Unstructured and unplanned, our summer plans are all up in the air. With freedom and time on our side, I am sure that we will have the best summer yet.