2) Gardens

My dream of living on a totally self-sufficient little plot of land would definitely start with incredible gardens. I would want equally huge fruit and vegetable gardens, along with loads of fruit trees. I want to grow everything: corn, tomatoes, peas, lettuce, cucumbers, squash, broccoli, beans, peppers, herbs, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, pears, apples, cherries. And of course we would have one giant pumpkin patch, an entirely separate dream of mine that will be addressed later on.
This book is one of my greatest inspirations for wanting to grow as much of our own food as we can.



















Barbara Kingsolver, who wrote The Poisonwood Bible which is also amazing, wrote this as a sociological/investigative journalism piece. Her and her family move from Arizona to the East coast in order to become completely self-sufficient. They only eat what they can grow themselves, or what they can buy from local farmers. It completely changes their family in every way possible, and brings them back to what's most important. They are healthier, happier, and stronger as a family. Who knew that kind of a miracle could happen just by changing what you eat? And who wouldn't want to grow a delicious garden to make that happen?

1) A Pottery Barn House

One habit I have is going through every Pottery Barn magazine that I get (which is a lot because we registered there) and tearing out the pages of things I love. Rooms, curtains, furniture, lighting, etc. I have a huge file with ideas for my house, which I plan to be shabby chic with a little bit of southern country mixed in. This is one of my absolute favorite ideas.
















I picture this next to our mud room, where our kids have their own little spot to keep permission slips and homework and to post their little achievements in school.

This is another of my favorites. I would love to have a dining room this cozy and inviting. I can just imagine sitting around with our cute family on a Saturday morning in our pajamas eating breakfast at this table.














And this is my dream bedroom. I think this is the most incredible color combination. It's like Fall, my favorite season, but so bright and cheery that I would love it year round. I'm in love with the orange accents.

Dreamer

It seems like lately all I can seem to think about is the future. We're getting restless here in Utah. It's not because we're unhappy, it's just that I think we're ready to move on. It seems that we're both coming to the end of what we can get out of being here. I realized today that I have lived in Utah for almost 5 years. Five years! That's almost 25% of my entire life. Living here makes me feel like I'm still in college, like I'm still 17 and playing around and not living in the real world. So I'm excited to move somewhere that we can actually put down roots and build a life. A permanent life, not a temporary student life.

So I thought I would share with you some of the things I plan to do/have when I'm all grown up, and we have a real house all to ourselves. And because I need more ideas for blogs, I'll be doing this as a little series. Starting with....Pottery Barn.

Chaos

That's the only word to describe the last couple of weeks for us. We had an incredible trip to North Carolina, and it was like a breath of fresh air in the midst of all that's going on. And this chaotic time in our lives is the reason why I have been a blogging slacker! So just know that I'm still alive, and Austin is too, and I will find time to update this weekend!

Best compliment ever

At work I've been covering for the girl that normally does scheduling, so I get to wear regular clothes instead of ugly, frumpy scrubs. My sister also gave me an adorable new haircut yesterday, and her talent with hair is seriously beyond imagination.

Today a girl at work said to me "You look just like you belong in an Anthropologie catalog".

No one has ever said anything so nice to me.

Hummingbird

This incredible little bakery in Notting Hill and South Kensington was one of the greatest things that happened to us while in London. Who doesn't love cupcakes anyway, but this is the most adorable place you'll ever see.

Just look at the front window display



















So cute, and so delicious. Red Velvet was my absolute favorite, but they are all scrumptious. Maybe I'll have some shipped over for a special occasion. =)

What did you learn in school today??

I learned more about this picture that I love!!













So they were doing intrauterine correction of Spina Bifida, and the mother and therefore the baby had been sedated. But near the end the baby reached its own hand out of the uterus, and the surgeon let it hold his finger. The photographer was there because this was a controversial procedure being done, and never expected to capture an image this incredible or beautiful. The controversy was that this baby was still young enough to be considered for legal abortion. So when the picture came out, of course Pro-Life activists used it in their campaign that babies are humans, and abortion is murder. It became such a controversy that the hospital had to release a statement saying that the baby hadn't actually pushed its own hand out, that the surgeon had reached in and pulled it out. And the photographer actually ended up losing his job over the picture. But the photographer and the surgeon hold true to the original story, proving that life does NOT start at birth. How could you see this and think any other way?

The other thing I learned in Anatomy today is that 50% of cases of Spina Bifida (and several other neural tube defects, like the horrible Anencephaly) are related to the mother's diet during the first 6 weeks of pregnancy. The cause of it is lack of Folic Acid during this crucial time of spinal cord development.
Here is what Spina Bifida looks like:











It causes paralysis in most babies to any portion of the body below the malformation. Many women don't even realize they're pregnant until close to 6 weeks, let alone see a doctor for a prescription of prenatals. So start your prenatal vitamins BEFORE you get pregnant, like right when you start trying, so you can give your cute little baby the best chance at being healthy, and avoid these preventable defects.