you
and welcome to another heart-to-heart today you find me sitting by my pellet
stove it's a blustery and windy day today and the temperatures are only in
the 30s but my pellet stove is able to heat my one thousand square-foot house
really warm in fact people make fun of me all the time for having such a warm
home I want to introduce myself to you my name is Theresa it seems kind of
funny to introduce myself to you after being on the Internet and being on
YouTube for almost two years but today I'm going to share with you a little bit
who I am and the name behind homestead Tessie
I'm gonna start from the very beginning and we're gonna have just a little bit
of a summary of my life up until now this way you can understand me a little
better and get to know nee in a very intimate way that you wouldn't have
known before you've heard my story about my birth and know the story that my
mother died 48 hours after I was born and most of you know that I was adopted
you share a little bit about my home life and then I'm going to share a
little bit about my life that I've created here
the people who adopted me which I call my mother and father but my mother was a
very strict woman they grew up very plain Mennonite and it has been brought
to my attention that a lot of people don't quite understand what I'm talking
about when I say Mennonite you know my own little world
this was my world and so I just assumed everybody knows what it's like but I'm
realizing that the world is so big and there's so much in the world that a lot
of people don't understand some of the terms I use my mother and father grew up
very clean in other words my mother were covering and cake dresses the kaepa
dresses were the kind of dresses that they had looking what was a cape it was
all sewn together but it was two different layers my grandma my grandpa
all of my ancestors grew up this way and so did on my husband's side of the
family we grew up in similar situations Mennonite comes from the word menno
simons and it was a group of Anabaptist people that were fleeing persecution in
the European countries and they came to America to settle and have their own way
of living and their own beliefs without persecution so that's where the whole
word Mennonite comes from and I welcome all of you to look up the word Mennonite
and Menno Simons then you can hear a little bit about my
background but before I was born and before my parents
adopted me they no longer were in the Mennonite Church the Mennonite way of
living was a very rigid way of living it was very doctrinal there was a set of
rules and laws and my parents were seeking a way that they could worship
their Lord and more of an open way and not had all the rules and regulations
that come with some types of religion the Bible was not based on any religion
it was based on Jesus and based on the Word of God but so many times we find
ourselves in little groups here and little groups there because that is how
we were raised and so when I say about being a Mennonite girl that is because
even though my mother no longer were the covering or no longer war they keep
dress so many of her values came from her childhood and they were passed on to
me you know so much of her childhood affects our adulthood and the memories
and the traditions of my childhood affected me to this day
mother was a stay-at-home mom all of my ancestors were stay-at-home women and
they believed strongly about women staying at home I don't hold a strong of
opinion as what my older ancestors did I believe that women have the right to
work away from home and have a right to do the things that they enjoy in life
but I grew up with a different mentality I grew up and a very structured home I
also grew up in a very home that was very sheltered when I mean the word
sheltered this is what I mean my mother never was out in the world she
never was out working away when I would come home from school my mama was always
there my mama always was a good cook she always saw to the things of her
household my mother was very good with managing money my mother was extremely
clean and was a very hard worker my mother was a very thorough worker she
would get things done my mother was not a worldly woman I said the word to
someone one day about being worldly and they didn't understand what I meant and
it's hard for me to explain what I mean because growing up you were there was
worldly women and then there were women that weren't worldly and so worldly
women were sought as women that worked out in the world and didn't want to be
keepers of the house they were women that weren't single women they were
women that for one reason or another had a husband and had family but they chose
to work away and that is how I was raised
see things quite like that not to that extreme but now you can understand a
little bit of my background and so my mother was the kind of woman who did not
gossip there was never drama in our family there wasn't strife there wasn't
any kind of bickering there wasn't fighting I grew up in a sheltered home
now things were not perfect in my home as you all know I have a lot of things
that I walked through in my life because of my home life but my home was perfect
and many people's eyes because I had such a strong structured home so it's
understandable that as soon as I reached the age of thinking of being married I
got married and I wanted a family in my own so at age 17 was very young I got
married and I've been married ever since to the same man and I think a lot of it
stems from being adopted it is a standard thought that you want to create
your own family a lot of times when people are adopted they don't feel like
they fit in quite because they are so different than the adopted parents that
they have that's just a standard way of thinking not everybody thinks that way
but a lot of adopted children do and I felt the same way I wanted to create my
own family I wanted to create my own life and were I fitted in perfectly and
I do and I did so by the age of 19 I had three children and I have three children
today my children are all married and I have I
have grandchildren so that is my background and a lot of times I feel
like there is such misconceptions about you know women who stay at home or women
that always stayed at home and it aren't out in the world that they're naive or
they're not as intelligent I never really liked school by the age of 23 my
daughter was in kindergarten and she had a very plain Mennonite teacher that was
a librarian and one day I was looking at some books and she said Theresa would
you like to take some home I think she understood that I was a really young mom
and I think she just wanted to enlighten me in the world of reading and I took
books home I became very educated by reading by reading books so while school
didn't really educate me a whole lot I learned from 23 on about the love of
reading and reading about history geography I loved reading about
nonfiction I don't read anything fictional I don't
live in a fantasy world where I read about things that really haven't
happened I love history I love learning I love growing every day and that is why
I seem as a teacher sometimes on my videos because when I learned something
really excited that I want everyone about it I've had a few women
in the past have asked me about my lifestyle and they are quite confused by
it because to them this is unusual to them it's strange to have a woman that's
never worked away from home and is the head of my home and he has always been
that way my husband makes decisions when it comes to financial things in our life
and my husband makes decisions when it's that real big important things in our
life but he sees me as help me and so my husband always asks me and always asks
for my input and things my husband and I are one we are together and we are in
agreement on anything and everything in life and if we don't agree on it we
don't do anything until we do have an agreement together and so this has been
my world this is my life hauling water out doing things by hand this is my
heritage this is how I want to live I had a subscriber who asked me a very
important question she said Tessie if you could would you
live in a more modern home that's a really good question and I know a lot of
you girls wonder that you wonder am I put into this position and it is a
burdensome position for me when we bought this place we bought it debt-free
and we live debt-free and I don't want to ever be in debt you all know my story
and if you don't I will share with you the link above about my financial
freedom I don't want to be in debt if I could have a more modern house and
debt-free what I moved there I really can honestly tell you I don't know the
answer to that and I'll explain why living this way is a way where I have
found peace I know that it's really hard for some people to understand how
working hard and doing things the hard way can create peace but sitting by my
pellet stove and making my homemade soap heating my water by the propane stove
all of those things give me a rhythm in my life and that rhythm has really given
me peace I love to live this way this kind of lifestyle
has not been put upon me I chose this lifestyle if I would say to my husband
today I can't live like this anymore I don't want to live here he would in a
heartbeat start finding a place that would be easier for me to live in but I
don't choose that I want to live like this I want to be a homemaker this is
what I was raised this is how I am I'd never really wanted to go out into the
world in the workforce I didn't find pleasure and I wouldn't find pleasure in
that I've never worked away in my life outside of the home but I wouldn't find
pleasure in that that's just not my personality I have siblings that are
very much into creating work outside of the home and creating that esteem of you
know making that kind of money and working away it's just not my makeup
it's not the way I was raised it's just not the way that I choose to
live so it's funny because you know my siblings
and I I have two sisters and a brother we were all raised the same way but my
sister's chose a different path as far as having a career somebody said
something one time about me being impressionable and while they meant it
as a negative thing I really see it as a positive thing
I am impressionable but I'm only impressionable on things that are good
in life and my mother put a big impression on my life about being a
homemaker and I really enjoyed that life that I live I am 48 years old and real
soon I will be 49 my 48th year has been the best year of my life it's been the
year where I have grown the most it's been the year where I felt the love the
most by everyone outside of my own little family it's been the year that
I've realized a lot about life that I didn't know it's been a year that I
realized not everybody grew up the same way I did and that I need to have
patience with people who don't understand the way I've lived in the way
I'm living now I've learned so much in my 48th year and all of that is because
of what I've learned through all of you on YouTube so I hope you enjoyed this
little talk and I just wanted to share with you just a little bit about my
traditions about where I've come from and where I'm going in life and I hope
that you understood it and if you ever have any questions I would love for you
to email them to me even if you have things that are concerns I would love
for you to email them to me because emailing them is where I can really
email you back on a personal level I'm going to end this with one final thought
my youtube channel for two years has been a very peaceful place and I will
keep it that way it will always be a peaceful place a place where people can
come and they can share their life with one another I will keep that the way
forever I will never allow any negativity to come in to my channel
because my channel is my safe place for me and for all of you I hope you enjoy
hearing about my life and getting to know Teresa just a little bit better
ain't a C comes from my father up until 2007 my daddy was the only one that
called me testy and in 2007 after life emergency which could have took my life
and changed my world I started blogging I started homesteading and that's where
homestead Tessy has come from different times in the course of this last year
I've been told to change my name because having the word homestead YouTube
doesn't really like to promote that and I'll be honest with you I was tempted
many times should I change my name in fact I even changed my name for about
ten hours a long time ago but you know what it all comes down to what I believe
and that is I am homestead testy that's just who I am I will always be that and
no name is ever gonna change take care everyone and we'll see you
guys tomorrow and stay warm wherever you are and those of you on the west coast
you're one lucky people because it's getting cold here in the Northeast and
we already had our snow take care everyone bye