...a bad case of TMS

I have a serious case of TMS (Tired Mommy Syndrome)....

Every night, I go to bed with every intention of waking up like f***king Mary Poppins and shit. I envision rising early, cooking a wonderful breakfast, sweetly kissing the SBF, and crawling into bed to snuggle with the Divas. I hear birds chirping. The sun is shining into the kitchen and the warmth from the sun puts a smile on my face. I pray for this "beautiful kind of morning" every night.

Instead, I wake up to Miss B pulling my eye mask off while stepping into my ribs with her cold ass feet and whining "I'm hungryyyyyyyyy. Wake upppppppp". She then proceeds to re-enter the womb literally. She lays on top of me and and rubs my arm, leg, stomach, navel, and face. Sounds so cute...but after 5 minutes of this, I find myself slapping her hand away. I swear I only breastfed her a year. The skin to skin contact that she requires from me daily would make one think she is still on the "tit". I pull my eye mask back over my eyes and pray for numbness all over my body. Minutes later, the middle Diva comes in and wedges herself between me and the SBF. I finally kick off all the covers while screaming..."okayyyyyyyyyy" and I stomp to the kitchen to prepare pop tarts. Screw pancakes. Screw homemade biscuits and bacon. By the time coffee is ready, I just want to pour the whole pot over my damn head. All the Divas manage to make it into the kitchen in just enough time to fight over one of the eight chairs in our kitchen, the special pink plate, and certain cups. I look out my kitchen windows and find myself wanting to run away. But, I don't and won't because I love the shit out of each one of them. They possess my soul. So, I look back at them and give a half ass smile. I walk to the living room to find the longest show they can watch and I crawl back in bed. I attempt to bury myself under the covers. The SBF and I then began a nasty game of who will ignore them the longest by refusing to get out of bed.

I have TMS which has lead to some shitty mom behaviors. I give them the answers to their homework. I let them eat snacks for dinner. I let them watch the same movie two times in a row. I zone out when they are talking to me. I pretend their flips and cartwheels are fabulous. I buy them shit hoping it will give me a good hour of free time. I don't like playing with them. I have resorted to using my ear buds as earplugs. I wait until bedtime to throw their toys away. I lie to them. I threaten. I bribe. I scream. I curse. I lose my patience. I have said "Well, hit her back!!"

The cravings that come with TMS are off the meter!! I crave alone time. I crave dinner with the girls. I crave getaway trips. I crave silence. I crave solitude. I crave senseless television. I crave dirty jokes
during happy hour. I crave sleeping in without any guilt. I crave dirty music. I crave champagne and dancing.  I crave being selfish. I crave having the SBF all to myself.

The last girls trip that I took, I was shocked to come home somewhat frustrated. I had a fabulous time. Weird how I found myself frustrated with the smidgen of freedom I had possessed for a mere 24 hours. Instead of being refreshed, I wanted more of it. It was like a drug. Then the guilt sets in and I question my decision to be a mother. Shit....wth?????? I immediately ask God for forgiveness for these thoughts. 





Just the other night, the middle Diva came to me asking for "family time," Immediately, I said "f**k" in my head. The SBF woke up from his evening nap and went to the store and purchased a game. He returned with a game called "Beat the Parents" and I literally mouthed..."WTF, dude!!". I was amazed by several things that night. I saw my three Divas get in a huddle together. Holy hell!!! Of course, Miss B's interest did not last long and resulted in her watching a show and laying in my lap. Still, the other Divas were determined to beat us. And to my surprise, the game got a little competitive. Yes, I accidentally screamed out "bullshit" when I answered "Count Dracula" as the vampire on Sesame Street only to be told I was wrong and that it was "Count Von Count" or some shit. Yes, the SBF got upset when the the oldest Diva would not accept his answer Earl of Grey for Earl of Greystoke. He caught the "mother...." that almost came out and instead whispered in my ear that he would not help her with her homework. There was laughter followed by Miss B pitching a bitch fit and Divas whining about going to bed, but overall it was a good night. We beat their asses. A memory was made and I gave myself a "keep your head up" pat on the back. The following night involved me zoning out and watching a 3 hour movie on my laptop and letting the Divas fall asleep on the couch. I'm not perfect.


It never fails that when the dust settles, the fighting ceases, and the crying ends. Out of nowhere, Miss B screams from the playroom or whatever room she is completely destroying...."I love you, everybody." And in unison, we all say "I love you, everybody" from wherever we are.  

And for five seconds, it is well with my soul. I realize I am doing the best I can. I realize I am loved immensely. I realize that no matter what syndrome I am suffering from there is an unconditional love present that I am blessed to receive. No matter how much I think I am screwing shit up...there is love in this house. Amidst the banshee screams, dysfunctional conversations, inappropriate words, cat fights, and emotional breakdowns....

We love hard in this house.

....Thanks living

The holiday season is approaching. Actually according to the commercials and stores, Christmas is here. I have had mixed emotions over the last couple of days of what seems to be the slow evaporation of Thanksgiving. The child in me still yearns for the Thanksgivings full of food, laughter, and fun. That child yearns for "home". In reality, that "home" is gone and that child has created her own "home" which is somewhat bittersweet. Sadly, my mother and her mother died within 1 year of each other, they were the most important and influential women in my life. They were total opposites, but they had one similarity....an insane love for the holidays. Since there is no "home" to go visit to recreate those beautiful distant memories, and there is not enough alcohol or drugs available to assemble together what is left of my dysfunctional family, I try to create my own.

Last year, we spent Thanksgiving at an Ihop. I was quite disturbed at first. The Divas were in heaven. They practically had the whole restaurant to themselves. As I sipped my coffee, I was comforted by their giggles. There was no dysfunction. Holy hell....was I happy and at peace? I did feel as if I were cheating the Divas. They needed the turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, and a game of  Life to be complete in the world. They needed the homemade rolls, the pear salad, and the "good silverware" aka as the forks that stabbed the back of my throat. They needed the hams, and the pies, and the German chocolate cake. My mother's mom, my grandmother or as I called her my "Maene" managed to create a spread for years that could feed the entire community. I would watch as she scolded her three daughters, one being my mother, for giggling during prayer or sneaking a pinch of the caramel cake. It was seriously like fucking Camelot on that side of the family...surreal. From that side of the family, I got my ability to recreate some shit that would make Martha Stewart tear up. I have baked, cooked, hosted, and decorated some pretty fabulous fucking feasts trying to get a hint of that fix that I long for only to realize that after half a bottle of wine, I am pissed and frustrated. One year, I looked around at the attendees of my pieced together family and friends and realized the main characters were missing. No matter how hard I tried the ingredients I needed the most were unattainable.

Thank goodness, in my childhood, I was also exposed to my father's side of the family who offered something totally opposite from Camelot. My father's side offered a variety every year similar to Christmas Vacation. Barbeque..chicken...turkey and maybe even pizza were items on the menu. The only two things that were constant: the out of the box "sock it to me cake" and a 5 hour game of Spades. My father's mother aka Grandma Alice is still alive and a firecracker to say the least. She had a stroke in the 80s that left her "different". Some years (mostly around the holidays) she was blind in one eye and some years she wasn't. Some years she was apparently "paralyzed" until it was time to jump out of her chair to claim that my grandfather wouldn't touch her anymore and she was going to die the following Friday. My grandfather would kindly reply while playing spades..."Awe, Alice, nobody wants to hear that shit." And I would giggle and somehow my heart was warmed by the behavior.  From that side of the family, I got my ability to recreate a comedic act that Richard Pryor would laugh at.

"Thanksgiving is the day when you turn to another family member and say, 'How long has Mom been drinking like this?' My Mom, after six Bloody Marys looks at the turkey and goes, Here, kitty, kitty." - David Letterman

Both families gave me two polar opposite pictures of Thanksgiving. A fairy tale and a comedy. I consider myself blessed to have had those two. When I am not trying, searching, or longing, I see a glimpse of both sides recreated in my everyday life. The scent of pecan pie or a good ole "nobody wants to hear that shit" reward me with the memory of "home". The "home" that takes up residence in my heart and my soul and where it must stay because as stated earlier the ingredients have expired.

The SBF finally decided a couple of years ago that the dysfunction was just not worth putting ourselves through....especially being that no one on my side of the family really drinks. BLASPHEMY!! I swear I think we would all get a long a little better if every one had a bottle of wine or too. For the second year in a row, I will not be up till 4 am cooking a fucking ham with pineapples and cherries strategically placed on it. I will not be at our local grocery store asking a random stranger how the hell do you cook a frozen turkey the night before Thanksgiving. I will not be up making my favorite sweet potato casserole. Awe......the infamous sweet potato casserole: one year, the oldest Diva came to me on Thanksgiving Eve and told me there was a "toon toon" on the floor. Well, "toon toon" is what we call our privates in the Davis household. Bewildered, I asked her numerous times..."What? Where?". Each time she innocently responded "there is a toon toon on the floor". Flustered, I grab her sweet little hand and asked her to take me to the toon toon. As I walked, I thought about all of the SOBs I would call the SBF that day for leaving out his "toys". I was shocked when she pointed down to a pecan half on the floor and looked up me with the a huge smile. "See mommy, there is a toon toon right there." Chopped pecans are obviously an important ingredient in my sweet potato casserole. Pretty fucking hard to cut up a bunch of pecans without thinking about toon toons. Toon toons everywhere. Pecan halves are no longer allowed in our house. Oreos are not either, but that story is for another day.

So, this year, we are eating at our local church that is serving the community. Once again, I was all like "Shit. What am I doing with my life?" I felt the internal struggle resurface on whether I am cheating my Divas again. I then remember I am chasing something that just cannot be and if I continue chasing that "home", I won't reap from the beautiful "home" I have now. My Divas will have various memories of many different types of Thanksgivings and I pray the varieties give them a
spark about them. A spark that will enlighten them, comfort them, and nurture them. I have many years to screw their lives up and I just can't let myself believe that eating pancakes on Thanksgiving will be the topic on the couch at their psychiatrist's office. If so....those bitches are pretty lucky. Confession: some days, I do dream of the Divas coming home on Thanksgiving with their families and the beautiful feast of food, flowers, cakes, cookies, wine, music, and games I will present to them and then the circle of life will be complete. Giggle.......

I wonder if Thanksgiving has lost it's appeal to some of us because we are yearning to recreate the impossible or that families are less "cookie cutter". Is it too hard for us to say, those memories were great, but they are not my current reality? Or my family is fucking nuts and I don't feel like being bothered? Basically..."It is what it is". Maybe we have all bought into what it should be and have rejected what it truly is. For one day, you are suppose to put aside all of the skeletons in the closets, feast, and avoid drinking too much and cussing out your uncle. There's just food and fellowship...fellowship that can bring up memories both good and bad. Fellowship that can lead to family fights, inappropriate comments, cursing, drinking, medicating, sneaking out to smoke a cig, and vowing never to return....

Unlike Christmas, there are no gifts presented at Thanksgiving to mask the sight of  the empty chair of the loved one that is no longer present or the gifts from the cousins that you only see once a year but manage to get you something that proves you are indeed related and not complete fucking strangers. It's just a time for giving thanks. A thanks that may come out as a "thanks for being a jackass all those years" after that second glass of bourbon. Or "thanks for biting my nipple out of anger over a doll that time when I was seven" which really made breastfeeding go sooooo well. Found this to further support my theory........

Whatever your "story", "situation", or your "home" may be, Thanksgiving should still be celebrated and celebrated for what it simply is. A day to fellowship with whomever...wherever....however and give thanks. A thanks to just living. Plain and simple

So however your Thanksgiving turns out...whether it is good or bad...you are living and that is something to give thanks for and celebrate. Living takes balls. Giggle

"Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often." – Johnny Carson

Cheers and Happy Living!!