Just 5 Minutes

4pm and I’m exhausted! I the kids are going on a walk and I am to join them in just a few minutes. I have to lie down and rest for just 5 minutes I tell myself. I crawled into bed. I closed my eyes, it felt so nice. My pillow was hard but it was supporting my very heavy head. “Get your shoes on, we are going”. I hear from the other room. The children were moving around. I still had time. I didn’t want to waste this precious time before the walk.
I woke up. The house was quiet, then an explosion of noise, as only five children all under ten years of age could create. They are back from their walk was all I could think as sleep once again claimed my consciousness.
Once again I was awaken by an explosion of noise, this time it was tears. The mother inside of me was concerned and so I listened. Apparently their mother was going to a friend’s house and they wanted to join. These tears and cried were not enough to move me from the bed until my arm started to hurt. I felt the area, oh how it itched. So I scratched it. Defiantly a mosquito. The sun had gone down and it was now dark. At 4pm when I laid down for my 5 min rest I didn’t need a mosquito net. But now that it was 6:30pm I was going to be eaten alive if I didn’t get up. By now the children were calmed by their father and my eyes were still tired. But the threat of more mosquito bites brought me out of my 2 ½ hour “5 minute” nap.