A Scalf Saturday Night

We don't worry about the latest family movie that just came to theaters. We don't spend hours at Blockbuster finding one for the kids and one for the grown-ups. We don't go to the mall much. We're kind of homebodies. We eat out once a week with our pastor and his wife (A.K.A. my dad and mom) right before Wednesday Bible Study in our living room or sometimes theirs. So what does the super exciting Scalf family do on a Saturday night?


We plant a tree.


Since we bought this house last August I have wanted something live in the house other than us and the uninvited (and now deceased, thank you, husband) rodents trying to escape the cold and wet outside by residing in our basement. I decided I wanted a tree for a particular corner of the living room. I had envisioned a palm or something of that variety. After going to Bates Nursery on Whites Creek Pike in Nashville which had some but were out of our budget, we went to Home Depot. Their palms were kind of sad and some had ants. I was feeling little bummed. Enter my fantastic husband who says, "what about these, sweetie?" I turned to see him next to some wonderfully vibrant Hibiscus trees. They were lovely. I wanted one bad but I was concerned.


"Will these survive in our living room?" What does computer geek husband do? He grabs his "Q" from its cradle on his belt and Googles it. We're standing in the lawn and garden department of Home Depot googling hibiscus trees while its pouring rain outside on a Saturday night. Yes, it was as odd and funny as it sounds. Anyway, the article that Google fetched for us gave us the go ahead.


Since it was raining and I don't like the basement because of a severe aversion to critters, we did the repotting in our living room. Here are the pictures of what happens when a Bonsai/Computer Geek, a 5-year-old, a toddler willing to eat anything, and a mom with a camera repot a tree in our living room. Enjoy!

As you can see Lily eventually had to get "nekkits" as she says because she kept sticking her hands in the soil, licking them and rubbing them on her clothes. Between shots I kept wiping her hands off and digging in her mouth for anything I could get out. Thomas was his Daddy's little apprentice, soaking in every detail of root teasing and soil composition and watering techniques. He's an amazing boy. After the tree was firmly in its new pot Daddy got bath duty and I was on clean up crew. They slept fantastically that night.

In the end we got a beautiful addition to our home and some great pictures of our family time. I love these kinds of activities with our kids. They are the best source of entertainment I can think of.

(From this article you would never know that I was an Ag nerd in high school and the president of our chapter of the Future Farmers of America. I was particularly interested in two classes: small gasoline engine repair and ornamental horticulture. The part about getting my hands dirty was the death knell for any career involving either of these. I'm not prissy. I'll play in the dirt with the best of them. I will just have rubber gloves on.)