Hi there! I’m Melissa and welcome to Oak Tree Junction. I originally started this blog almost ten years ago before I decided to take a break at the end of 2020. I was turning 30, and my life looked very different. I was married to Jack for only seven years, we didn’t have any children, we didn’t even have a combined checking account, we were in debt, I worked somewhere where I thought I would retire from, and I had just converted to the Catholic Church. I wrote about all these topics and more over those six years, but at the end of an exhausting, very challenging year, I needed a break. I started to feel I was trying to be Instagram and Pinterest perfect and in reality I was severely depressed, overwhelmed, and stressed. I started to eat very poorly and stopped all exercise, and like so many other people in 2020, I gained a lot of weight. I wanted to focus only on my family and myself, but did I over the last three years? No, of course not; I found other ways to distract myself and slip further into feeling depressed, overwhelmed and stressed. However, things started to change for me 2023. It was the first time that I was able to feel like there was hope. I left the part time church position that I really enjoyed in November of 2022, so last year I spent the entire year as a stay at home mom and I loved it. There were times where I wanted to go out and find a job again just so we could have some extra money coming in, but I stuck to my promise of giving myself a full year to listen to where God is calling me.
So here I am. I felt a calling to come back to this blog to share all the amazing, beautiful, hard, and really challenging moments in my life. Instead of continuing with the original blog, I decided to archive it; it’s still available to read here. I didn’t want to delete those old posts since that was who I was then, but I wanted a fresh start to write something different at times because I am different. I am still married to Jack for going on 17 years, we have one truly amazing autistic six year son, we live debt free, I still have a little Etsy shop and decorate cakes at times, and I have fully embraced being Catholic. I’m not sure how this will go or if anyone will even bother to read it, but I am writing what is on my heart and trusting God with the rest.
So here I am. I felt a calling to come back to this blog to share all the amazing, beautiful, hard, and really challenging moments in my life. Instead of continuing with the original blog, I decided to archive it; it’s still available to read here. I didn’t want to delete those old posts since that was who I was then, but I wanted a fresh start to write something different at times because I am different. I am still married to Jack for going on 17 years, we have one truly amazing autistic six year son, we live debt free, I still have a little Etsy shop and decorate cakes at times, and I have fully embraced being Catholic. I’m not sure how this will go or if anyone will even bother to read it, but I am writing what is on my heart and trusting God with the rest.