Two years ago, I sold my home and everything inside it to move onto a raw half acre of land by the lake in an RV. It was a little bit crazy, but everyone gets a little bit crazy after a bad breakup. I wanted a fresh start and a smaller footprint. I found myself a single mom in a huge house on five acres of land with so much work in simply "keeping house". It was daunting. So I traded it all in for a dusty parcel of land in the most magical little neighborhood that couldn't be a better fit for us.
How It Started
My original intention was to live in the RV long term, so I hired out to have a pole barn built as a cover structure. As the months went by, I realized that having a small cottage to live in would be a better fit for us, and I could rent out the RV to another single mom and we could team up. So I ordered a shed shell, and decided to handle the conversion myself. Five months after delivery, we were ready to move in, and that's around the same time I connected with Djemilah.
We met while I had my coffee shop, and she had started a marketing business with her boyfriend. They did some work for my shop for a couple of months, until he pre-sold some services to me then abruptly skipped town. He mentioned to her that he had done that, and she reached out to me to try and figure out what was sold and if she could complete the work. From there we opened up a conversation about living situations, and she needed a new place to live right as I was finishing up some of the final critical elements in the cottage (we had to have air conditioning to survive summer in Texas). I invited her out to come take a look, and things fell into place.
We officially started our single-mom commune, or Mommune as we call it, in August 2022. It's pretty much the best of both worlds, single and dual parenting. We each have our own individual spaces and privacy, and can run our homes the way we want them to be. But we are right across from each other, each in our tiny homes. So whenever there's a need, we can fill it. If one needs to run a quick errand, the other can watch the kids. When I started commuting 40 miles each way to work, she took care of bus drop off and after school care. When my car got stolen and I lost that job, we started alternating summer childcare so we could each get work done uninterrupted.
How It's Going
The first year was basically about survival, for both of us. Even though I had already been out in the new town for a year, it was the last one for my coffee shop. Things were getting worse and worse financially with the COVID hangover. Cost of goods skyrocketed, and we just had no end of tough circumstances that decimated my foot traffic. I tried my best to figure out how to survive, but in December of 2022 I passed the equipment and keys over to new owners, and ended my tenure as a small town coffee shop owner. It was devastating, and such a difficult time to navigate. 2023 wasn't much better, with financial insecurity and just a string of really horrible luck when it came to cars and transportation. We both struggled, and we are still actively facing difficult challenges.
Having each other to cover when we need a break, or find last minute work, or just need to go for a walk alone has been such a blessing. It's through this difficult year that we both realized that we have a passion for building community and wanted to launch this brand to help support other women and single mothers who are navigating life on their own. With Magical Girl Mommune, we want to help other single moms join forces and create Mommunes of their own, in all different ways. You don't have to have acreage in the country, going off grid and milking goats. Maybe it's renting a few rooms in your house, and having another mom and her kids move in with you. Maybe you love working a demanding job that excites you, and you have a friend who is a passionate stay at home mom who would love nothing more than to make a house into a home and craft bento boxes for the kids every morning. Maybe you have an involved coparent, or perhaps you've always done this on your own.
The point is: we want to help you build your own Mommune that works for you! From learning how to navigate all the emotional challenges, how to split the bills and finances, and come up with fair arrangements for each person. How to handle conflict, how to communicate effectively, everything that comes with navigating interpersonal relationships, especially with kids involved. Our girls are in 4th, 5th and 6th grades. Those are tough ages, and with the close living situation, it definitely gets challenging. We have to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and help facilitate emotional growth and maturity with our kids, and within ourselves. Parenting is hard, and parenting with other people can be difficult at times. We hope to be able to share what we've learned through this experience to help others set up their own situations to easily navigate conflict. And when there's a rupture, to have a healthy repair system in place.
So, that's our Mommune! We are currently two single moms, living in our own tiny homes on the same plot of land, helping each other raise our kids collectively so we can all thrive. I'm setting a goal to create my own version of NaNoWriMo and write a blog post every day this month, long or short, to kickstart our creativity and share our journey so far. I can't wait to meet you, future friends, and help you build your own Mommunes!
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