PLAY
How We’ve Redeemed Our Ground … and Will!
Winter is a unique time of year for those of us who enjoy spending a lot of time outside in our yards. This is a common time for organizing our tools and cleaning things up, but it’s also a great opportunity to reflect over the past year’s projects,…
Read More
Not Your Average Treehouse
My girls had been asking me to build them a playhouse for some time. For months I thought through design ideas, but I couldn’t get the thought of this diminutive structure being outgrown by both of my girls no sooner than I finished building it…and then it would…
Read More
Family Fun Night – Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt (with printable)
So in the final rush of Christmas preparation…this post didn’t make it out as early as I had wanted it to. But I do hope it is just in time for you to enjoy over the next few nights…now that school is out and there is greater flexibility to enjoy…
Read More
How to Make a Lighted Christmas Star (or Card Holder)
Alright…so I’ve shown you how to make lighted Christmas balls using chicken wire and then with folding wire balls. Today I’m going to share how to make a lighted Christmas star. So if your kids are clamoring for you to add a little Christmas life outside…this project is super easy and really cheap.…
Read More
Last Minute Gift Ideas for Your Ground Redeemer
I once did a post on last minute gift ideas for your ground redeeming friends and family t … and was recently been asked if I was going to do it again. Well … the answer is, “I am.” Today. Right now. So keep reading. (By the way,…
Read More
The 2015 RYG Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt! (…with printable)
Back by popular demand is the RYG Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt!!! Last night we 4 Scotts piled into the car with our friends the Brauns…just like last year. I guess you could say what was once a Scott family Christmas tradition has become a Braun-Scott-family Christmas tradition. With…
Read More
Birdseed Ornaments…Christmastime Fun!
Christmas vacation is here, the kids are out of school, you need some fun activities to do with them and it’s just too cold some days to get outside and play. So I’ve got a fun idea to do with your kids indoors that you bring outdoors…..consider it…
Read More
Top Christmas Movies
Merry Christmas everyone! And if your family is anything like mine…after all the presents are opened and you’ve gorged yourself on candy and food you might want to sit semi-comatose and watch a Christmas movie. Okay, I know…you’re probably saying to yourself, “What’s so ground redeeming about watching a Christmas movie”.…
Read More
The 2016 RYG Christmas Scavenger Hunt (video twist!)
Over the past few years one of our favorite family Christmas traditions has been to go on a Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt. We grab our list of Christmas lights to find…and our cups of hot chocolate… jump into the car…and off we go for some time of…
Read More
Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt … Printables
Merry Christmas Eve, Eve, Eve All! So for over the years we’ve provided y’all with a list of new Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt ideas so that you and yours could jump in the car and squeeze the most out of your neighbors’ Christmas decorating efforts. We hope…
Read More
Zip Line Adventures in Our Own Backyard!
Woopwoop! Our first “Share Your Story” submission! Hopefully this trend will continue…where others will start sharing their stories here too – inspiring others to live fuller lives at home outside. As you can see by the submission below, here’s a family that’s doing just that! [Alright, in…
Read More
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…
Read More
These Boots Are Made for Exploring!
A beautiful Spring-like day in January beckoned us to get outside for some major playtime and exploration this past weekend – knowing that some bitter cold temperatures would be moving back in soon. As Doug wrote in his last post, he and Brown-Brown had recently cleared a path to the…
Read More
Fun Friday Find: Nature Cards
After reflecting on my last post, I was thinking that some of you may be wanting to foster exploration in your kids and get them outside adventure-ing (my new word), but maybe you don’t know how, maybe you feel your kids aren’t naturally wired as explorers or maybe…
Read More
Snow Days … the Perfect Time to Pause and to Play
Being the Florida boy that I am … the closest thing I had to a snow day growing up was having to stay home from school because of a hurricane. But those days were characterized by simply being stuck inside and fearing that our windows were going to…
Read More
Snow Days … the Perfect Time to Gather and to Connect
One Tuesday back in 2014 I spent over four hours stuck in gridlocked, icy roads desperately trying to drive a carload of 2nd graders back to school from a field trip to anxiously waiting parents. Many a moment along that journey the feat seemed impossible…the kids hadn’t had…
Read More
3 Must-See Nature-Themed Time Lapse Videos
Needing a little inspiration myself, I came across a few nature-themed time lapse videos that are really incredible. So rather than keeping all the beauty and inspiration to myself I thought I’d share them with you…my fellow Ground Redeemers. And although they won’t make spring come any faster,…
Read More
Lookin’ for Love…Gifts in Nature
So I have this little rock that sits on my windowsill above my kitchen sink. It’s been sitting there for a couple of years now. It isn’t anything fancy. It’s rough and it’s rugged! But it’s special! It’s special because my girls gave it to me. They found…
Read More
Gather, Play…and So Much More
[So I asked my friend and fellow family and outdoors lover, Jen Overly, if I could use her comment on a recent post as a post in and of itself. “Asked” is probably not the most accurate word…more like “told”. I “told” her because I simply didn’t want…
Read More
Camping Themed Birthday Party
‘Tis the season for birthdays at our house. Three of our four birthdays are in a span of 33 days in the Scott household. So needless to say we do a lot of celebrating during that time period…and I do a lot of party planning! At the moment…
Read More
Gardening Themed Birthday Party
So since I am STILL in birthday mode this week (see last week’s post if you missed my last birthday post)…I thought I’d share another great outside inspired birthday party from the past. When my Littlest One was turning five, we planned a gardening themed birthday party. In…
Read More
For the Birds…How to Make Cheerios Bird Feeders
My mom, sister, and aunts are all obsessed with the Eagle Cam at Berry College. They go online several times a day to see what’s going on with the eagles and their babies. And then they text updates to everyone if they’ve caught them feeding the babies or doing something else interesting. Check…
Read More
Spring Forward…Taking Homework Outside
“Spring Forward” always brings with it a little bit of good and a little bit of bad to our home. Some of the bad is simply that I’m still dragging along from missing that one silly hour of sleep. And beyond that, my mind still hasn’t adjusted to the…
Read More
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…
Read More
A Couple of Easter Activities…for the Family Planner
First of all…I’m clearly, admitedly…and frankly…unashamedly…NOT our family planner. Britt…clearly, admittedly, and fortunately for our girls and me…IS. So to do my part…and to help Britt’s fellow family planners out just a bit, I thought that I’d re-post a couple Easter activities she posted on last year…so that you could get…
Read More
Declaring War on Mosquitoes | Know Your Enemy … Fun Facts & Some Basic Tips
With warmer weather approaching … and mosquitoes not far behind … it’s never too early to start gearing up for the battle that lies ahead. Today I’m going to share a few fun facts about mosquitoes, as well as some basic tips on how to minimize the chances of…
Read More
Easter Egg Birdseed Ornaments
Easter is just around the corner and I’ve got a fun activity you can do with your kids this weekend. If you’ve been following us from the beginning you may remember the Birdseed Ornaments I wrote about at Christmastime. Well this is a twist on those same ornaments…Easter…
Read More
Topping off the Perfect Easter Basket with “Let’s Hatch Chicks!” by Lisa Steele
If you’ve read any of my chicken-related posts, odds are you’ve gotten to know fellow blogger Lisa Steele … of Fresh-Eggs-Daily fame. She is the expert when it comes to all-things-chicken. Besides being a 5th generation chicken keeper, she’s also an author, Master Gardener, an aspiring herbalist, sought-after…
Read More
Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt
I think it’s perfect that Easter is celebrated in Spring! Really…there is such rich symbolism connecting the two. Just when all the new life is emerging from all the plants in our yard – that just weeks before appeared dead, we also get to celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
Declaring War on Mosquitoes | DIY Wine Bottle Tiki Torch
I can’t stand mosquitoes. Sure … I get that they serve some purpose in the greater ecosystem, but as Brownie often asks me, I’m sometimes left wondering too – “Why did God ever create mosquitoes?!?” And I know that I’m not alone. So today’s post is on how-to-make…
Read More
Get Outside & Play! (The Importance of Outdoor Play)
Odds are, if you’ve read even just a few of our posts you’ve gleaned that one of the reasons Britt and I are doing this whole redeem your ground thing is out of our desire to get kids outside to play more…ours, yours, whomevers! A lot of that…
Read More
Summer Reading…Take It Outside!
The countdown to summer is on at our house. Just two weeks of school left until summer vacation! And I’ll be honest – we. can’t. wait! It’s hard to prioritize homework when it’s so beautiful outside…the sun is setting later and frankly we are just tired of doing homework…
Read More
Summer Family Read Aloud Books
So last week I wrote about how reading outside is a great way to redeem a little ground at home. Going off that, I’d now like to encourage you to choose a family read aloud book for the summer – something you could read together as a family…maybe…
Read More
Please won’t you be my neighbor?
There are few things that make my mind zoom back to my childhood quicker than hearing the song from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, take a look at the video below or ask one of your parents.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMUGJZrR9Jg Man that was a long…
Read More
5 Great End-of-the-Year Teacher Gifts … RYG Style!
It’s hard to believe…but summer’s almost here. And actually…ours has already begun since Brown and Littlest One got out of school last week…whoop whoop!! That said, odds are if your kids are in grade school you’re probably looking for a thoughtful…yet inexpensive…end-of-the-year teacher gift. So I wanted…
Read More
“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”…
Read More
National Get Outdoors Day!
Did you know that June 14th, 2014 is National Get Outdoors Day (GO)? That’s THIS Saturday people! So what are you going to do to celebrate? Since we’ve just recently learned of this great day, we at the Scott Household are still trying to figure out what we might…
Read More
Great American Backyard Campout Day!
Mark your calendars…this coming Saturday, June 28th is Great American Backyard Campout Day! Who knew?! This year the National Wildlife Foundation has set a goal of getting 200,000 people across the country to camp out this weekend. To learn more, as well as get some great tips and…
Read More
There’s Just Something about a Tire Swing
I don’t know what it is, but there’re very few things that say carefree summer days more to me than a tire swing. That’s probably why when we were trying to come up with images to represent the PLAY section of RYGblog that we landed on a tire swing. …
Read More
30+ Fun Activities for Kids to Play in the Dirt
As I’ve shared on previous posts, I’ve got a thing for dirt…I love the way it smells, the way it feels, and all it represents. And if you’ve ever been on RYGblog before, I hope that you’ve noticed that I love my girls from my head to my…
Read More
“I love my new yard!”…Backyard Makeover Tips
There are few things that satisfy me more professionally than seeing pics like the one above and hearing words like “I love my new yard!”…especially from my youngest of clients. And that’s what eventually happened after I got a call from a good friend of mine late last…
Read More
How to Make a Scarecrow
The one downside to having a veggie garden is…the critters that come and feast on the vegetables without an invitation! It’s so frustrating going out to find a squirrel dining on the very nice, large, green tomato we’ve been waiting to ripen and dreaming about eating ourselves. And they never say “thank…
Read More
Natural Play Spaces – Best for Your Kids’ Bodies & Minds [Guest Post by Holly Brooks | King Landscaping]
If you’ve spent any amount of time on RYGblog and you haven’t picked up on the fact that the primary reason I got into this ground redeeming business in the first place was because of my family – for my girls to have beautiful, creative, meaningful spaces to play, hang out, learn, and…
Read More
5 Must See Videos That Encourage Outdoor Play
On the heels of last week’s post about designing natural play spaces, I thought I’d follow up with 5 videos that I think, in one way or another, will encourage you to spend more time outside with your kids. Why? Well…because outdoor play is really, really important. Read on…
Read More
DIY Painted American Flag Door Hanger
Just in time to help you celebrate the 4th of July, I’ve got a great patriotic craft project for you…a painted American Flag Door Hanger! It’s fun, easy, and very inexpensive…and regardless of how crafty you are, I’m certain it’ll turn out super cute! Oh…and it’s very kid-friendly too…so if you’re looking for…
Read More
10 Great Summer Family Read-Aloud Books
Confession time. I’m not much of a reader. I know that’s ridiculous…for so many reasons. Sorry. But unless a book is assigned to me you will rarely find me reading one. Britt and the girls are big time readers…thankfully. Perhaps I’ll become more like them one day…I hope…
Read More
4 Must-Haves for the 4th of July!
In just a couple of days you’ll very likely be hanging out with a group of friends or family…celebrating the 4th of July. Which will likely involve being outside and eating some really good food…and maybe an adult beverage or two…and a sparkler thrown in there to round…
Read More
How to Make a Tire Swing [Video for Exmark]
It seems like I’m sorry about a lot of things these days. On my last post on fertilizing tips, I was sorry for getting it out late because of kidney stones. And today’s post on how to make a tire swing I’m sorry for yet another delay. But…
Read More
Natural Bug Spray Recipe
It’s the end of August.and I am so fed up with battling mosquitoes. I know they are God’s creation and all…and I know that they have a great purpose in our ecosystem, but they drive. me. crazy!!!!! They steal so much joy out of an otherwise lovely day! …
Read More
Back Yard Triage: 5 Landscape Design Tips to Bring Life to Your Outdoor Spaces
I know…with these hot and humid days we’re still having, you probably don’t want to be outside in your yard for very long. But now is actually the perfect time to think about your yard, because in the fall…which is just around the corner…it will be the perfect time…
Read More
Stamping with Okra…Yes, Okra!
Here’s a little craftiness for you crafty gardeners…stamping with okra! Yes…okra! When you cut off the head of the okra there is such a charming and unique shape to be found inside the rough, elongated exterior that makes for an adorable stamp. So if your garden is producing way…
Read More
The Vital Importance of Outdoor Play for Our Kids
If you’ve only read our posts on gardening or chickens you may have missed the fact that the primary reason that Britt and I embarked on this RYG journey was to help get people outside more at home…to connect with their family, friends, neighbors, and nature. We believe…
Read More
Fall Is In the Air…Time for Fall Family Activities!
This past week has been so nice here in Atlanta – we’ve officially turned the calendar to fall and with that have come the cooler temps and breezes that mark the season. So before all the leaves are off the trees and winter’s cold winds take over, I wanted to jot…
Read More
Spotlight on RYG’s Posts on Holiday Crafts & Decor
So this past weekend we were “officially” introduced to our local community at an event hosted by our friends from a really cool local home & garden boutique – the bird and the bee. We really had a great time…and are so appreciative to the bird and the…
Read More
7 Fun Fall Activities … That’ll Get You Outside!
Alright, I’m going to make this one quick…because the weather outside is amazing and I want to get out there and enjoy it with Britt and our girls. But before I do, I wanted to provide you with 7 fun fall activities that you could do with your…
Read More
Easy Pumpkin Seed Recipes…and Tasty Too!
With Halloween right around the corner, you, like me, may be gutting a pumpkin this weekend…transforming it into a jack-o-lantern. If so, I thought I’d re-post a post Britt did a couple of years ago about some pretty tasty pumpkin seed recipes. Happy Halloween Y’all, Okay…with Halloween behind…
Read More
I’m So Glad It’s October!
I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. Oh Anne Shirley…I couldn’t agree with you more! I completely share your sentiment! October is THE BEST! It is a much anticipated month for me…probably because fall is my most favorite season and October ushers in…
Read More
Why Do Leaves Change Color?
[Every year the leaves change color…so every year I’ll likely re-post this post on Why Do Leaves Change Color? I just think it’s pretty amazing…and thought that there might be others wondering the very some thing. So here it is again. But beware, I go a little biology on…
Read More
A Dad, His Boys, and Their Tree House
I’d like to introduce you to my great friend Jon…fellow daddy of 2 young kids and a guy who loves building things and getting outside as much as he can with his family. Being a master of almost any tool he can get his hands on and having…
Read More
How to Make Lighted Christmas Balls
Ironically…and much to our girls’ chagrin, we have never done much more than hang a few stands of white lights outside to decorate for Christmas. Our deck-the-hall efforts have always focused on the inside of our home. But this year it’s going to be different. Not that our…
Read More
NON Chicken Wire Lighted Christmas Balls
We love to decorate for Christmas. But up until last year all our festive decorating efforts were limited to just the inside of our home. This never sat well with our girls. Particularly when we drove down our street passing by all sorts of lighted displays…only to find a…
Read More
I-Spy Thanksgiving Day Walk
It’s Thanksgiving week and I’m so excited…I just love it! My girls are out of school all week and it’s fall…my favorite season! It’s a great combination for some good family time…enjoying each other and the outdoors and all its glory! Of course Thanksgiving Day will be the highlight. All…
Read More
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.…
Read More
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…
Read More
Thankful Tree…Just in Time for Thanksgiving
For those of you with lots of ideas, but who never seem to get around to doing them… you’re not alone. I took this photo of a precious little Thankful Tree I saw at a friend’s house the year her young daughter made it…in 2007! I remember snapping…
Read More
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…
Read More