Easter- a time of changes

I met an amazing couple at church yesterday.  They are local farmers, and gave me quite an insight to the farmers' plight. 

Each time the milk truck comes, it takes 45 days until they are paid for what was picked up.  And during that time, the people who set the milk price can determine how much they will pay for that milk. A hundredweight of milk (11.6 gallons) usually costs about $22 to make.  Lately, the farmers have been paid about $11-12 per hundredweight.  And the real kicker is that they can say that milk is worth $22/hw on the day the milk is picked up, but they only get paid by what the milk is worth on the day they get paid.  How much does that suck??!?

And people wonder why the farms are all going under...

The kids and I will be going to visit their farm sometime this week, probably Wednesday.  We will be able to see how they milk their cows, maybe even taste the raw milk  (something I've been curious about lately), and see how the cows are taken care of, and maybe what else they do on their farm, since I'm sure that's not the only thing they do all day long. 

That is the background story for part of our family change I have been talking about.  I don't want my kids to be naive about where their food comes from, and how hard the farmers work to get that food to us.  I wish there was more I could do to help the local farmers, but since its not fresh food season, I can't even buy produce from them. 

I'll have to post more later, because the baby is tired, and its time to go shopping with my awesome Mom.  :)

I'm...scared.

Tomorrow is my last day of junk food.  Lots of carbs.  Sugar, or at least whatever I wanted to snack on.  Which was usually something sweet.  No more Dove chocolate Easter egg truffles.  Or caramel twix bars.  Those have been my treats lately, because we are on vacation, and its Easter-time. Oh, and m&m's while we play games at night.  Ugh.  Just looking at the junk food I've consumed in the last 3 weeks is enough to make me nauseous, even though I didn't eat that much of it at once. 

Monday is when I start my new study guide, Becoming the Woman God Wants Me to Be by Donna Partow.  I have already skimmed through this guide, and that's why I'm scared.  It has some hard decisions in it.  But mostly, good things that I have wanted to try, things that will help me feel better about myself, and help me grow. 

Monday is also the day that I start P90X.  I am reading through the nutrition guide and meal plans, and trying to figure out what I can substitute, since we are living with my parents for the next couple of months, and they eat totally differently.  I have read about the exercises, and watched the first couple of minutes of the warm up on disc 1.  Jon is going to be doing my 'before' pictures tonight, and I'm recording my weight and size info.  Yuck.  :D

Anyhow, I am going to upload pictures now, after Jacob's game stuff finishes its work.  We have a very slow connection here, so it is taking 2 hours to download items that previously took 5 minutes.  Oh, the joys of living in the back of the woods!  Or at least, living 50 feet past where the local cable company can deliver high speed internet.  I kid you not.  They told my parents they wanted over $1300 and then $65 monthly for high speed internet, since they would have to install something in their yard.  :O

Anyhow, any encouraging words or advice are very much welcome, since I've never done this program before.  Lots of prayer, too, please!  :)