some how ironic that I'm sitting to you in my pantry and I'm gonna talk about
this subject I really wasn't going to talk about this and I was cleaning my
pantry out I was really working in here and you know my mind went deep into
thoughts and my thoughts were am i surviving or am i thriving I'm gonna
show you a little bit about my life and share it with you a little bit why I
have such a large pantry and I think you're gonna come away with this video
and understanding about prepping and about thriving or survive it's hard not
to reflect on my life when I'm sitting in here because so many years ago 10
years ago my life was so different and although I always loved canning I did it
for a hobby one of the number one things that people say about me and my channel
is when I have my pantries number one is you're a hoarder and you have a problem
number two is oh I love your pantry it's so beautiful oh I wish I had one there's
so two complete opposites from hoarding to say how it's beautiful I want to
share with you a little bit so a little more than ten years ago when my life
changed drastically and I share with you my story of how I went from riches to
rags it's not quite that extreme I mean I wasn't really what you would call rich
and I'm surely not living in rags but I shared with you how I lived a life that
pretty much I could do whatever I pleased you know if I didn't know what
to make that day at the store we went out to eat if I didn't have food we went
and bought whatever we needed it was nothing for us to go once a week and
spent $200 we bought all kinds of things and while I loved canning and things
like that I did it more for a hobby I didn't do it for a survival mode it's so
different my life now and a lot of people have said well now you're just
punishing yourself Tessy because you lived a life that was affluent and you
feel bad about it they just don't get it and so today we're going to talk about
getting it before you think this is going to be sickly-sweet talking about
how life gets you bad smile and everything's
gonna be okay that is my personality but I understand
the hardships and survival there was a time in my life that I had to live
survival and I wasn't thriving for me each day I had to get out of bed and I
had to push through that day when we still would everything we owned and I
had a hospital bill and I wasn't feeling very well and anxiety and panic attacks
were just extremely taking over my body I was at a point where just getting out
of bed was survival looking in my cupboard and finding some old canned
food that I had done on my days and my years when life was good only reminded
me more the constant hardship that I am facing now I would look at that food I
would look at that food and with the test and think oh my word
look what I have to eat now when I made this I didn't have to do it it was
something that I enjoyed and now I hate it because now it reminds me of the
poverty that I'm living in and it reminds me of the life that I used to
live I looked at my canned food not with thankfulness by looked at it with
disgraced how in the world can you go from there to here
and then of course self-pity would go in well I didn't well then of course
self-pity would go into my life and I would say well it wasn't my fault I
can't help but the economy went down and all of our real estate properties just
went down the tubes because you understand I didn't really spend money
on frivolous clothing or jewelry no we went out to eat and you know we could
always buy the food we wanted but it wasn't like I was going on lavish trips
or I was going on places that costs a lot of money but yeah we were living a
very comfortable life the situation with our life was in 2007 economy went you
know what happened to the economy in real estate we had all of these houses
that wouldn't sell and that's where all of our debt came in we
a family member we owed the bank we owed everything but we paid it all off I say
it with pride because paying it all off took us seven years but those seven
years were hard years we didn't have anything for us but we knew that we
needed to pay it off and we did I know that circumstances come people's way
medical expenses and things like that in their life where they just absolutely
can't pay it off but for us we knew we could if we didn't spend and that's why
we did so because we felt in our hearts we knew what we needed to do paying off
that debt was something now I look back on with great pride and a great sense of
satisfaction because all those lessons I learned all those years ago you would
have told me 12 years ago 10 years ago even where I would be today and the
lessons I have learned I would laugh at you and say Yeah right
and three years ago if you would have told me where I am today
I wouldn't believed you eyes of the camera I'm shared with you so much of my
weaknesses but over that time in the beginning I wasn't thriving I was
surviving but why was I only surviving and not thriving well we didn't have
money and we still don't have money so why am i thriving today but I was only
surviving then because I decided to take my bitterness of that canned food and
that bitterness of the lifestyle I once had and turn it into something that
makes me thrive it wasn't until I had a long trip home from the doctor's office
that I realized that I had to make a change I didn't know what was wrong with
me I thought I was dying I couldn't breathe I couldn't eat I couldn't sleep
my heart was racing my hands were sweating what in the world is going on
with me so many emergency ER trypsin nothing was wrong with me so I went to
the doctors and I finally did some research and said do I have
the doctor and he said yes you do oh he prescribes so many pills I'm not
against medication whatsoever he prescribed nine different pills I had a
pill if I couldn't sleep I had a pill if I had anxiety I had a pill with my
stomach hurt because of the pills I had so many pills and I realized on the way
home that my anxiety was not caused by physical ailments it was caused by the
condition of my mind and on that way home I cried and I said I need to make a
change in my life and the bitterness of my canned goods and the bitterness of my
situation of having to give everything away selling your own pennies for what
it was worth I realized that that was my life saving change I held the key to
change in my life where I could turn my surviving into thriving how it didn't
happen overnight let me tell you I still grumbled and complained I still wish
that I could do this or wish that I could do that and going away where
people would see me in my ratty old truck my ratty old truck that truck and
I became good friends because that time my husband still was working 90 hours a
week just to be able to pay off all of these interest loans for you see when
all of these properties wouldn't sell we were still paying the property taxes on
them imagine that but one by one the property sold
we didn't make any money on them but one by one we started relieving our debt and
we started with the smallest debt first and then we worked up to the highest and
we paid it all off so why am I sitting in my pantry why do I share you food
it's not hoarding its thriving I knew of a time when my life were I looked in the
cupboard and I only had a couple cans of food our plight was something that we
didn't tell a lot of people we hidden it deep inside because that's what you do
you don't tell people at least that's what people tell you and
I realized and having pride pride can come before a fall
but in our lives in our four walls we wanted to keep that look of everything
is all under control on the outside when we sold everything people I'm sure they
knew I mean we went from a brand new Dodge truck to an old Chevy that thing
barely got us where we needed to go but yet me in that truck we became friends
it was a symbol to me it wasn't a symbol of poverty it was a symbol of freedom
freedom how in the world can I say I have freedom no longer did I go at bed
at night and wonder how we gonna pay this bill how are we gonna pay that bill
brought into bed and before I fall asleep I'd say I don't have to sell this
I don't have to sell this I don't have to sell this I have what I have I know a
lot of people can relate with me and I know some people have no idea what I
talk about when you look at food like this 99% of this spoon was food that was
gonna be thrown away either I dumpster dive for it or I got it thrown away or I
grew it see now my perspective is different I don't look at this and think
about the lifestyle I used to have I look at this and think of the wasteful
lifestyle I used to have and I see food with a price tag
I see everything with a price tag now and I realized we have such waste in
this world and how can we make it different how can we make it better how
can we change our perspective how can we thrive and not survive a lot of it is
our mentality I understand realistically like my husband would say
poverty is a fact but I say poverty is a state of mind we're always going to be
disagreeing on that he understands my point of view I mean I understand my
point of view and as a man he understands his but I think he's
starting to see that you can thrive on having less and
it is a mindset you don't have to just survive in your life you need to be
proactive in your life you need to reach out and find out look for things that
you need find these things it's not easy but the biggest thing for me was saying
no to my pride and saying yes to being thriving do I ever look back on my old
lifestyle do I ever wish that I had things like I did then that's a lot that
is a loaded question and a lot of people ask me that all the time I can honestly
say when I look back on it I do think about the times that I had an easier
life I didn't have to haul out water I didn't have to live and watching my
electricity I didn't have to live with what society would say is living in
poverty or living a poor life I don't look back on that and wish I had it oh
don't get me wrong there are times when I face hard here and there's times where
I'm physically I'm tired and there's times that I think I just wish I had it
easier but you know this is hard to say that people will understand but I know
some of you will when I get up in the morning every morning I have a purpose
because I'm going out and feeding my chickens because I know that there's
water that has to go out and I know there's water that has to be collected
it gives me a purpose a lot of people would say well that purpose oh my
goodness that that's your purpose in life well then you don't really have
much of a purpose it's not my purpose in life but it gives me a purpose it gives
me a testimony it has given me a test we all have testimonies in our life and
we all go through tests a lot of you it's physical a lot of you are going
through severe physical things in your life and you wish that you didn't have
to deal with them I understand that but you're dealing with them now and you're
using that not to survive but you're using that into thriving maybe in your
physical body you're not thriving but emotionally you
are thriving because you're deciding to become better and not bitter about it so
my talk today is how can we thrive and not just survive there are some people
that comes easy for other people's it's hard lessons some people will choose to
be better their whole life and other people realize there's more to life than
what you have and there's more to life than what you own and for me I can look
back and honestly tell you that I wouldn't change it I wouldn't change it
for the world you know I think about what would I do if I had that money now
if I had all that money now that got wasted you know if I had all that money
now what would I be able to say to you what would I be able to do what would I
be able to learn and what would I be able to tell you about what it's like to
have real friends in your life people that stay with you or what it's like to
have people that only wanted to be around you when they thought you were
wealthy oh that's another whole video and how people that aren't wealthy in
your life look down upon you because you don't have that and so many times people
that have wealth or have things they can judge others who don't and say well I
would have never done that I would never have wasted my money on that but you
know things happen to all of us different reasons different ways and I
think a lot of times you see people who did live a life of luxury and things
happen to them it can happen overnight so why I'll still have a pantry like
this I rotate all of my food and the reason why I have a pantry like this is
I don't like seeing the waste but I know what it's like to have little and I know
what it's like for other people to have little so I prepare now my storehouse is
full because I know that tomorrow things could change no I'm not a doomsday
prepper and no I'm not the end of the world but you know what you never know
when life can take a curveball at you you never know when life can change
you never know let's think about it this way what happens if tomorrow our
electricity would go out people say that's impossible but nothing is
impossible we've seen worse things happen to other countries all this food
people would be praising me for people would be knocking down my door for it
people would be saying wow look at her there's same people that today are
condemning and criticizing about me having food and saying that I am an
hoarder are the same people that would be thankful for me and then they would
only be surviving and I am thriving maybe this is a lot of mumbo-jumbo words
and maybe this is going to really help some of you I don't know but it was on
my mind today and I thought I would share it with you so if I were you and
you want to start a pantry and maybe you don't have the resources that I do but
let me tell you a lot of people have been contacting me and used my video
about free food and they are getting the same thing that I'm getting a lot of
people are doing it but let's say you can't do all that I would write down the
foods the main 10 meals that you love to eat and 10 meals that you make on a
daily and 10 meals that you make on a monthly basis write down the ingredients
to those 10 food items and just every week by two instead of one every week by
two if you can afford it by 3 by 3 of those ingredients so if you use
spaghetti noodles by 2 by 3 and one year my friend you would be surprised of what
you can have I would suggest you for 6 months don't use that stockpile your
food can last you years years my friends please don't ever get into the lie that
when your expiration date is expired that means you have to throw it out it's
it's not that way when you see an expiration date and can fit it can last
two to four years beyond that date you know if you want to get perishable foods
like milk and things like that that's different but can't be spaghetti noodles
rice beans all of these things you can do it's not going to expire right now
we're eating oatmeal 20:16 and it is as fresh as the day I
bought it do small do small increments remember you need to survive and not
just thrive and you know a lot of people are doing this and they're realizing
they're actually having a lot of fun and doing it it actually becomes something
that of a hobby it has blessings that go beyond the
Hobby when I was living in the high life and I can doll this food you know I was
really glad for when my life took a turn even though in the beginning I really
really didn't like it because it reminded me of my past after a while
when I changed my mindset I was so thankful for it and I was happy that I
did do something even though it was just a hobby at the time it helped me thank
you so much for watching and hearing a little bit about my story