HOW WE WENT FROM RELYING ON STORES TO BEING MORE SELF SUFFICIENT
Hello! My name is Meshell and this is my story…
I was raised like most people, barely having the funds to scape by, in Texas. I was a bit on the luckier side because I was in girl scouts and that was my life as a young child, that selling cookies paid for my summer camps.
I never realized how poor we were until about my teenage years. I watched my friends and piers have the latest and newest things while I was lucky to have a cheap flip phone.
My First Son
I was a rebellious teenager, I started going out and partying and doing stupid things when I was 14 and had my first son, Scott, at 15 years old. My mother took custody from me and I had to battle for years to get custody back.
My first Marriage
My Senior year of high School, I met my first Husband. We dated for a year off and on and then I found out I was pregnant. We tried doing the right thing, and getting married, but our marriage only lasted for 7 months.
My Second Son
I had my second son, Jayson, when I was 19. I was a single mom, struggling to juggle life. Jayson and I went down a long hard road together, just trying to survive in the world.
Son #3
When I was 23, I had my 3rd son, Aaron. His father and I moved to Corpus Christi Area and tried for a few years to try to make our relationship work, but in the in, we realized it was better for everyone if we weren’t together. So, I go back to being a single mom but now have 2 kids living with me. I get a job at a gas station and eventually work my way up to being assistant manager. Life was pretty good for us at this point. I made the money to support us with ease and still be able to take my kids to go do all kinds of fun things.
And then we had a Hurricane
I was working the day before Hurricane Harvey hit. I was helping with getting the store prepped for the hurricane when my boss told me, they had issued an evacuation and that I needed to go ahead and head home to get me and my kids packed so we could leave out. We headed back to my hometown in East Texas. After Hurrican Harvy hit, we lost everything, our house now had an RV in the middle of it. We tried going back to the coast to continue life there, but after the hurricane, it was like everything had changed. I eventually lost my job, and we ended up moving back to East Texas permanently.
Meeting my fiancée
In 2018, I met Bryan and fell in love with him. We had our daughter in 2020. We have had our ups and downs and our struggles in life, but we are still pushing forward and trying to better our lives for ourselves and the kids. We are currently buying a house from a friend, so we are living on our friend’s property. Once the house is paid off, we are going to be moving the house to our own land.
Over the past year, I have been on a self-sufficient journey. Trying to make our household more self-sufficient and less relying on stores.
I hope you enjoy this journey with me, as I write about my experiences, mistakes and everything in between as we learn together.