INSPIRE
What’s Your Family Story?
There are few things that move me more than music. Sometimes a song will just send me somewhere. And you can call me a sap, but “The House that Built Me” is one of those songs. Although Miranda Lambert didn’t write it, her performance and the words that…
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Do you know where your kids are?
As I was starting out on this whole redeem your ground journey, I was told by two completely unrelated people that I should read “The Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder” by Richard Louv. And I’m so glad that they did. It’s a…
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If New Year’s Resolutions Fall Flat with Your Family…Try This Instead!
Happy New Year friends! I hope you and your family had some special times together over the holidays. We sure did! But we are really looking forward to seeing what this next year has in store! REALLY looking forward to it! Speaking of New Year’s, I wanted…
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New Year’s Resolutions Often FAIL because the are Impotent & Uninspired
If you’re anything like me you’re not the best at sticking with your New Year’s resolutions. It’s almost gotten to the point that I enter the New Year knowing that I’ll break my resolutions almost as fast as I made them. Which is stupid. I’m not a sociologist,…
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RYG 2016 in Pictures … What a Year It Was!
I’m still not certain if all this social media shtuff is a net-good-thing or not. Which is quite ironic given that I’m relying on social media to reach you … and it’s partly the foundation on which I’m trying to build Redeem Your Ground. Oh the tension of…
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Family Roots Run Deep & Strong…
Not only did I come from a family who enjoys being outside…whether hunting in the woods or getting our fingers dirty in our yard, I was also fortunate to marry into one that does as well. Some of my richest memories of childhood are of being outside with…
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Where am I?
[Once again…due to Atlanta’s crazy weather, we interrupt our regularly scheduled ground redemption posts to pause…to pause and consider. WARNING: This post is a bit deeper than most…but hang in there with me.] I woke up this morning to see my world covered in a blanket of white. …
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Define Your “Ground”
Hello friends! Well it’s the second week of February and I’m finally sitting down to write my first post of the year. Whaaat!?!? Where did January go?!?! January…for me, is usually a fairly calm, not too busy, get-caught-up-on-things kind of month that I always look forward to. Not…
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Hey…RYG is on the Living Homegrown Podcast!
Hey…I’m excited to share with y’all that just last week I was interviewed by my friend…Theresa Loe, to be on her award-winning Living Homegrown Podcast. And it just went live yesterday (link below). Who’s Theresa Loe? I’ve introduced you to Theresa before on several other posts, but in case you…
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Family Valentine’s Activity – Family Love Notes
Alright, Valentine’s Day is almost upon us…again…so I thought I’d share something with y’all that we do to make it an occasion that our whole family enjoys. As with most of our family traditions I can’t take any credit for it. Britt…being the words of affirmation kinda girl…
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Redeem Your Ground…The Video
Earlier today, as the sun finally shone through after some very gray days, I closed my laptop and took a walk through my yard…stopping to breathe it all in. I was excited to see the hostas and peonies starting to break through the ground…my G.G. Gerbing azaleas promising…
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What’s Green Mean to You?
[Holed up inside with the flu…YUCK…the only thing green that I’m thinking of right now is being green with envy that I can’t fully enjoy this amazing weather we’re having! But rather than dragging you further into my funk, I thought I’d re-post my post from St. Patty’s Day…
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Our Staycation…Staying Close to Home for School Break
Now, I’ll say it upfront…I may be a bit jealous of my friends and family who are posting pics of their amazing Spring Break trips to beautiful beachside villas or dramatic snow-capped ski resorts. But this year we decided to stay close to home and go on a…
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Why Redeem Your Ground? Your Kids.
Okay…I’ll admit it…it’s been a tough couple of days. A few things that I had hoped would come together didn’t…and a few things I didn’t want to happen did. Launching a new business, particularly in an industry you didn’t build your 20+ year career on, is challenging to…
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Ground Redeeming Anniversary Gifts
My Resident Gardener highlighted our beautiful Lady Banks’ Rose on RYGblog earlier this week. Oh how I love her! I love how she has created a lush canopy to welcome our guests. I anticipate her beauty every spring as it is such a pinnacle moment when she blooms. …
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Redeem Your Own Self…Live a Healthier Lifestyle
Today I’m going to take a break from posting about how you can redeem your ground with beautiful flowers and chickens and veggie gardens…to post on something that helped kick-start this redeem your ground journey of mine in the first place. That was to “redeem my own self”…by…
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Rebirth: Our 1960s Ranch House Renovation | Transforming the Front Elevation
Curious about our 1960s ranch house renovation? Well we’ve found that our fellow ground redeemers are … because you’ve asked. We also realized that most of our posts featuring what we’ve done with our outdoor spaces have focused on our back yard … where there’s little evidence of…
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Living Gifts that Keep Giving
I’m on a gift-giving kick right now. After writing last week’s post on ground redeeming Anniversary gifts I’ve been motivated and thinking about what I’m going to get my Resident Gardener for Father’s Day…in June! But in the meantime I’ve also been gathering a few friends’ birthday gifts, end-of-the-year…
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What’s Your Story?
Do you have the kind of friend who will really tell you like it is? Not in a jerky kind of way…well because that’s not a friend, that’s a jerk. No, I mean the kind of friend who will speak into your life in a critical, yet life-giving…
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Ryan’s Story: An inch & a half of comfort changed my life forever
Greetings fellow ground redeemers. Last week I upped the RYG ante a bit and challenged you to consider your story…and then tell your story…believing that when we do, we affect others’ stories for the better. But you may be asking yourself…That’s great and all, but what in the…
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Inspiring Gardens
Sometimes I just want to be inspired by what I see…and not be distracted by someone blathering on about some deep thought or story. So in an attempt to not distract you, I’ll simply include a number of images of gardens that have inspired me. But because I can’t…
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“Slow Down” … by Nichole Nordeman
A dear friend shared this song with me recently and I wanted to share it with you. Although I’m certain that the target audience is moms, I think any parent…mom or dad…or anyone really, could get something out of it (i.e., I’m not turning in my “man card”…
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got margin?
got margin? I don’t. But I need to. Really, we all need to. Either real or perceived, it seems like we are all running around with very little margin. And when we don’t have margin…or don’t feel like we do…we don’t rest, can’t rest…don’t see, can’t see…don’t feel,…
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Redeem Your Day
This weekend was bittersweet. Sweet in that Sunday was Father’s Day and I was showered with love and attention by Brown & Littlest One…and Britt. It was really great…soul-filling…affirming…and so rich. I’m blessed. Bitter in that I got the news of 2 horrible things that had happened this…
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Father’s Day for the Gardening Dad
Gardening isn’t just a hobby for me – it’s a passion that both stirs me and grounds me…connecting me to nature’s honest rhythms and to what was best about my childhood. This deep love for the outdoors and gardening began when I was a boy… …transplanting perennials from…
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Redeem the Meaning of “Beauty” for Your Girls [From Dr. Kelly Flanagan, UnTangled]
To celebrate the Fourth of July Britt, the girls and I spent the weekend with my in-laws at their lake house. It’s actually more of a down-home, shabby-chic fishing cabin…and for me it’s one of the most relaxing places on earth – simple, cozy, slamming screen door, and…
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Redeem Your Story – “Your Story Starts NOW” [from Dr. Kelly Flanagan | UnTangled]
Alright, it’s time for me to go deep again. I guess a diet of only hydrangeas, potting benches, and scarecrows just isn’t doing it for me. It seems that unless I take the time to consider the more important things of life – the bigger story, all these other things…although nice, only serve…
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What Were You Made to Do…to Be? (Dr. Kelly Flanagan | UnTangled)
Given that this is the 3rd post I’ve done highlighting an article I’ve read on Dr. Kelly Flanagan’s blog UnTangled…I guess you can deduce that I like what he has to say. But this article, What Were You Made to Do, hit the bulls-eye of the Redeem Your…
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What’s the Meaning of Labor Day?
I originally wrote this post about Labor Day back in 2014…when my girls looked so much younger…and I thought it was worth a re-post this year. To be honest, it wasn’t until recently that I really understood the meaning of Labor Day…I’ve always just thought of it as…
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I’m thankful for … cotton sheets
So for the past several weeks Britt and I have peppered y’all with fall and thankful themed posts…obviously because we’ve entered that time of year and it’s Thanksgiving week after all. I went a little science teacher on you with my post on why leaves change color…and Britt…
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3 Ways to Bring More Thanks to Thanksgiving this Year
Given that it’s Thanksgiving week we thought we’d share a few ideas that might not only encourage a more thankful cadence to things around your house this week, but may also give you something to do while your kids are home for break. Hope you enjoy them…Gobble-Gobble! 1.…
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DIY Christmas Decorations…RYG Style!
With Thanksgiving behind us…just barely…and with you know what just a month away, it’s time to start thinking about Christmas. Which at the Scott house means pulling out all the Christmas decorations. So I thought I’d re-share 3 DIY Christmas Decoration projects. Hopefully they’ll help you bring an extra…
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RYG’s Top 5 Christmas Decorating Posts
For all of you right-after-Thanksgiving-Christmas-decorating-folks…which I am not…I thought I’d provide you with a single place to find our Top 5 Christmas Decorating Posts. So without further ado, here you go… Chicken Wire Lighted Christmas Balls Our lighted Christmas balls made out of chicken wire is by far the…
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