CLARAFIED BUTTER

Sitting here in my living room, watching my kids wreck the house despite my screams every few minutes for them to stop.  I wonder how my Mama did it.  I  had the fear of my Mama that my kids don’t seem to possess. I also didn’t have a father around so I knew she was the be all, end all to life as I knew it. I knew that very early on and it’s an awareness that I am grateful for now.  My Mama is no longer here for me to ask questions to and hear her homespun. responses that were tailor-made for my understanding. Yes, much like Forest Gump’s Mama, mine too knew how to effectively communicate with me without making me feel less than but fully capable and often inspired. As a Mama, I often feel like a wildlife photographer, just here to study and photograph my kids, being careful not to interfere with the natural order of things only in life or death situations do I dare intervene. Even when they cry, I remember writing in my book about hearing my kid...

October 17, 2016 Life just gets in the way sometimes. Since starting this blog I have moved my whole family (husband, 2 kids and our dog) back to our home in D.C from Honolulu, Hawaii. I will not bore you with all the details and complaints I have about packing and moving in general but doing all that and moving it across the country? Yikes it was tough to say the least. Long plane ride, tired parents The worse part has been adjusting to the six hour time change. We lived in Honolulu for eight months and it was an experience. I will remember it for the rest of my life. The landscape and scenery aren't just stunning but the people are friendly and welcoming. There hasn't been a day since coming back home that I don't think about the places I loved in Honolulu but even after admitting all that, there really is no place like home! Kids running free at a playdate I instantly felt we had made a fitting decision for our family. In Honolulu my daughter couldn't...

Preface: In the title and all throughout this blog the word 'mothering' is actively used. I don't know its official origin but the first time I read it was through my favorite Mama-writer, Binahkaye Joy. In her Mommy blog she used the word so often it felt like she coined the term. Using the word 'mother' in verb form is so ingenious, why not make what we do an active term?  My name is Danielle Dominique and I am a writer. My first gig was for the APA, writing abstracts for science articles. Since then I have been trying to figure out my niche as a writer. I have been married for almost six years and have two young children and a seven year old dog named Homer.  I am NOT the Mama I always wanted to be to my kids. Truthfully,  I never saw myself married but only my husband knows why and how we work. So, with marriage came “love” and that brought about baby. My first child was born the next year of our marriage. Almost too soon but right on time in the gran...