Each Monday on the Pure Purpose blog, I feature This Week’s 7, a simple list about an everyday topic, giving you ideas and encouragement. This week’s list of summer ideas for your family and friends will help you savor the warmth…of weather and relationships!

1. Backyard campfire. Build a small campfire in a fire pit or chiminea and enjoy a S’more and story-telling session.
2. Puddle-Jumping. As the puddles form and a gentle rain falls, get refreshed as you sing in the rain together. Jump in with both feet, or ride your bikes through shallow puddles.
3. Nature Search and Find. Nature is bursting through the summer. Walk around your neighborhood and challenge each other to find certain shapes, colors, or types of leaves, flowers, and other items of God’s beauty.
4. Secret Service. Look for ways to serve in your community. No one needs to know! Pick up trash, pull weeds around a park’s sidewalks, mow a neighbor’s lawn while she’s on vacation, or deliver fresh vegetables to someone’s front door.
5. Fresh Fruit Faces. Gather several kinds of fresh fruit and challenge everyone to build a face or complete creature using only fresh fruit and toothpicks. Be sure to take photos to remember the silly, creative time together. Then you can enjoy your creations.
6. Game-Changers. Take a regular summer game you play, such as volleyball, softball, or bocce ball, and switch up the rules. Let everyone create one new rule or revise an old one and see how the changes affect the game!
7. Sit-In. Enjoy a favorite movie in the backyard. Gather around a laptop or project the movie onto a tightly-hung white sheet. Pop some popcorn, gather your chairs, and make a memory!

Do you have ideas for fun ways to enjoy summer days and evenings?