Delayed Vacation

     I get it.  When you're the mother of six children within the age range of only seven years, a houseful of kids 24/7 could stress out even Mother Teresa from time to time.  So creative parenting is essential to getting a few moments of peace and quiet.  Like the time one summer day Mom offered a dollar to anyone who could find a four-leaf clover.  After spending the entire afternoon looking everywhere within a hundred yard radius of home, I decided it would be easier locating a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card in mint condition.
   So in early September one year, Mom no doubt had been counting down the days until school started up again.  When that morning finally came, I wasn't feeling very good.  I tried telling her that my first day of 2nd grade may have to wait.  I've never been a very good liar, so I'm guessing at age seven my lies were about as believable as Jon Lovitz saying that his wife was Morgan Fairchild.  Even so, Mom wasn't hearing any of it.  Three hot vacation months out of school is great for kids, not so much for mothers.  This was to be the first day of Mom's "vacation".  Free at last!, free at last! is my guess of what went through her mind as she all but pushed the last one of six out the door to the bus stop that morning. That was however, up until she saw my abrupt stop on the front lawn, followed by a bend at the waist, a pale hue covering my face. Next I unloaded an amount of vomit that would have made Linda Blair proud.  The front door opened back up and I came back into the house.  Back to school would have to wait for me.  School vacation would have to wait for Mom.