Domestic Psychology

bye-bye dead tree

// May 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // flickr, home

Saturday night at the Cove

// December 27th, 2008 // No Comments » // flickr, holidays, local

Christmas 2008

// December 25th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // flickr, holidays

Evan’s tree

// December 22nd, 2008 // 2 Comments » // flickr, holidays, preschoolers

$2 tree + bugs and dinos from the toybox = one happy 3-y-o

tree reflections

// December 21st, 2008 // 2 Comments » // flickr, holidays

Wall-E tree

// December 16th, 2008 // No Comments » // teenagers

Sarah’s free Wall-E tree came in the mail and she was thrilled. She wanted to immediately plant the tree in a temporary planter to help it last through the winter. Instead of waiting for me to find some potting soil, she went outside and dug up a shovel full of our front yard. I didn’t mind the hole in the yard and was quite relieved she didn’t accidentally dig up one of the outside cat’s gifts that Doug removed from the front porch and buried in a shallow grave. Doug was the first person to point out that she had more clay than dirt and the tree would still need to be re-potted. Tonight, I asked Sarah to please water her tree while she was waiting for Dad to get a bag of potting soil. She poured a cup of water around the tree that I don’t expect to survive the winter indoors and immediately shrieked. “There are WORMS! Hundreds of baby worms in my Wall-E tree. Ew! That’s the most disgusting thing ever.” I looked in the planter and pointed out several other living creatures that had come out to drink the water. I don’t think she wants to claim the Wall-E tree as hers any more.

from a distance

// December 14th, 2008 // No Comments » // holidays, life, people

Neighbor: “Your tree looks wonderful.”
Me: “But, it’s covered in popsicle stick ornaments.”
Neighbor: “We’re looking at it from across the street. All we see is a beautiful tree.”

Distance . . . time . . . beauty.

one of the ‘good’ trees

// October 30th, 2008 // No Comments » // flickr, weather

Wednesday Poll

// October 29th, 2008 // 6 Comments » // Doug, home, life

This poll has nothing to do with politics. I know that’s tremendously disappointing, since everyone is feeling so nonchalant about politics right now, but this poll is about a tree. Ignore the dog staring at me like I’m insane for taking a picture of a tree instead of her. Focus instead on the extremely large tree looming over our house. Yes, I know the shutters are a terrible color. Try to focus on the tree. We live on an almost completely wooded lot. A month ago, a giant branch fell off that tree and nearly clonked me in the head. Okay, maybe the branch was only about 6 inches diameter and it fell several feet away from me, but it was still creepy. Creepy in a “branches don’t fall down without a good reason” kind of way. Since then, very few days have gone by that Doug didn’t hear the words “that tree” come out of my mouth. As in, “that tree is gong to crush the house and hurt the children” or “that tree is going to completely squash the car” or several other equally dramatic and exaggerated scenarios involving trees.

Doug called a tree specialist. I’m sure that the specialist’s job was to give Doug information that would make me shut up already about the tree. Instead, the quote was $650 to try and get the very bad tree removed asap because it’s falling down “sooner than later.” Of course, Doug’s first reaction was that he can take the tree down himself. That option sounds like another visit to the ER to me. So, that brings us to today’s non-political poll.