Mama Raw, aka Ashley, is a wanderlust stricken stay-at-home mom who is alternately overwhelmed to the point of tears (or at least swear words) by the demands of motherhood and breathtakingly enamored with the world’s most amazing little girl and baby boy.

She created Mama Raw as an outlet to express the intense experiences and emotions of motherhood as well as the intelligent thought it generally stifles.

Ashley enjoys outdoorsy stuff like hiking, camping, and canoeing.  Before her own kids were sucking the life out of her, she was an environmental educator, playing in the woods and dealing with other people’s kids’ shit (literally).

Yep, she’s been called a hippie, although you wouldn’t know it to look at her.  Maybe it’s the homebirthing and cloth diapering or the Masters in Environmental Studies or that one five-week period she didn’t take a shower.  Who knows?

Writing is Ashley’s second favorite therapy.  Whiskey is her first.  But she’s currently breastfeeding and bedsharing, so writing it is.

Read on to find out how a double X chromosome put the “Mama” in Mama Raw and how Ashley began fulfilling a lifelong dream of grooming a mama’s boy.