Impromptu Vacation

It had been a crazy weekend.
Ok. More like a crazy...well, when hasn't it been crazy? I can't remember.
Anyway...we drove out of the church parking lot in the dreary drizzle, trying to decide where we were going to grab lunch because we had no groceries in the house and we all had various chores and responsibilities that afternoon and we had to be back at church at 4:30. Whew!
We were tired of Mexican, too far away from anything else, and didn't really want fast food. So I decided we'd go to Sybil's, a small but fancy restaurant right there in town with high prices but great food.
As we walked up the sidewalk to the large southern style house with a wrap-around porch, music playing softly, I felt like I was on vacation. We were seated in a cozy room with only a few other tables by an elegant black-haired lady wearing a distinctive gold piece-of-art necklace. The ubiquitious knot in my neck slowly unclenched as the four of us chatted aimiably about sunday school, prom the night before, and a recently rented movie. We laughed over our pasta and fried chicken while someone besides me worried about filling glasses and picking up dirty plates. We even splurged for dessert (can you say "Warm Gooey Butter Cake a la mode"?). As I lingered over my coffee, I felt the stress fractures that come with a busy family life start to heal. This hour with my family and no distractions was well worth the $80 bill. To me it was priceless.