About a year ago I left my acupuncture practice to be home full time with our girls. I was feeling a bit empty on the career front and was itching to start a new business. Tired and pregnant, one afternoon, I layed down for a nap with my daughter and had a dream- a really vivid one!

I dreamed up a charitable foundation which would serve as a “re-education” of sorts for single moms. SMURF was what it was called (Single Moms Urban Resource Foundation- Yes, that really was its name in my dream!). It was to be a big old craftsman home where moms could come to learn about budgeting, nutrition, receive medical advocacy for their kids, resume building & career advice, parenting support, co-op childcare and an overall sense of community. It would serve as a place for Moms to learn how to handle their tremendous load of responsibility with more grounding, more grace, more support and certainly more sanity.

It all stemmed from an observation I had in my neighborhood… We were living in Inglewood- a neighborhood with an extraordinarily high percentage of single mom households. I noticed that their kids were pretty much the trouble makers in the neighborhood and I started to think of those moms as a weak link in the community- weakened only because they were stretched thin, beyond their capacity, in order to provide for their kids.

What I am only just now realizing about that dream is that I could possibly be one of those single moms in that community- and my SMURF is this Ignite Your Life program!! I am so motivated to pay it forward via my charitable foundation one day.

So I woke from that dream completely pumped. With laser focus I journaled everything that had come to me in the dream… And then thought, how would I be able to make that happen?

Dream #2 came a week later- it was a detailed plan for the company that would provide the seed money… The name? Sugar Mama! (Are you thinking that I need to take more naps too??). Sugar Mama was a compilation of all the things I love to do- one part domestic goddess, one part home chef, a pinch of retro home maker with a dab of inspiration from cooking with my daughter… Sugar Mama would be a kitchen textiles company- gorgeous aprons for mom and daughter, oven mits, dish towels, table linens.

Metaphorically, of course, Sugar Mama is the seed money for the single mom in me. And SMURF, while one day will exist for others to benefit from, is for now Marni’s (and my coaching team’s) helping hand.