Category Archives: Farm Family

All things farm kids, marriage, motherhood, faith and church, grieving and growing, traveling, and other fun activities for busy families; including how to make time for family activities, keeping things simple for busy families, and being active in the outdoors as a family. , camping, hiking, and fun!

Key topics: Farm kids; motherhood and the daily grind; faith and family: family time; farm kids; grieving and growing; marriage; family travel; and camping and hiking.

Great Football Movies for the Family

Posted on by June 28, 2017 12
Great football movies for the family...inspiration and motivation for kids. via Walking in High Cotton

Well, we registered the boys for football this Fall. Practice doesn’t start until August, but we’ve started accumulating their gear. And they are so excited that they’ve started wearing it around the house and to do their chores, especially walking the dogs. You know, just to get used to it. {smile} Speedracer is particularly excited about it and has been filling all his extra summer minutes with football movies–which then inspire him to throw his gear on and run around the backyard like a gridiron superstar. When it comes to sports … Continue Reading…

How to Make a Great Outdoor Space for Summer Family Time

Posted on by June 21, 2017 2
How to Make a Great Outdoor Space for Summer Family Time. Simple and budget friendly tips. via Walking in High Cotton

I’ve written before about how hard it can be to leave the farm for a vacation in the summer time. So we staycation a lot. And honestly, that’s probably more liberal than it deserves. We “staycation” a lot in the summer. On Friday and Saturday evenings. On our own back porch. After working all day. {smile} We’re blessed that the farm provides everything one could need to get a little rest and relaxation without having to go anywhere at all! It can truly feel like a “family vacation” with very little … Continue Reading…

Farm Life Makes Vacations Hard

Posted on by May 30, 2017 2
family lake vacation

We just got back from a short family vacation over the 3-day weekend and I’m reminded why we don’t all go anywhere overnight very often! {smile} The farm is hard to leave. And the work is hard to come back to! We spent some refreshing time with family at the lake and the crew got to do all-things-water-sports for a couple days. Kayaking, canoeing, boating, some fishing, swimming, even paddle boarding. They got to stay up late and sleep in (a little bit!) and not have to do any chores. … Continue Reading…

How to Plan a Family Unit Study for Fun Summer Learning

Posted on by April 26, 2017  
FREE Summer Unit Study Planner set at Walking in High Cotton (2017)

A book, a movie, and a field trip about the same topic equal an easy summer family unit study!  Summer brain drain–ugh! For 3 months the kids run around from camp to craft to sleepover wanting fun and games and play time all day, every day because SCHOOL’S OUT so we don’t have to do any more of “that learning stuff.” Um…not around here! So what’s a busy, working mom to do besides frantically shuffle the kids from one STEM camp to another and continue to spend her nights tracking … Continue Reading…

Spring Break with Simple and Frugal Family Fun

Posted on by April 14, 2017  

The crew has been on Spring Break lately, so I’ve been hashing together a schedule between work and home to spend time with them–even if it occasionally means I’m working while they’re playing. It’s a joy to be able to hear them laughing (and squealing!) in the background! What are some of the simple and frugal (actually, mostly FREE) family fun we’ve been enjoying this week? Well, scrubbing water troughs for one! The kiddos had to empty, scrub and refill all the water troughs. Since we just recently rotated the … Continue Reading…

Redirecting Anger with Healthy Activity

Posted on by May 18, 2017 5
Redirecting Anger with Healthy Activity in children via Walking in High Cotton

We’re in a parenting stage where we deal with a lot of anger in our munchkins. We tend to think of that as something you deal with during the “terrible twos” and with toddlers, but it doesn’t magically go away when they become more verbal. I wonder if it doesn’t actually increase as your child’s mental and emotional capacity grows, but we start giving it different names. That sounds so negative! But the whole time they’re growing up, kids have to learn to deal with things like anxiety, disappointment, and … Continue Reading…

Helping Kids LOVE the Outdoors

Posted on by April 7, 2017 6
Helping Kids Love the Outdoors ... at www.walkinginhighcotton.net

It’s no secret that we spend a lot of time outside and love the outdoors. Peruse our Facebook page, Instagram account, or even here at the blog, and almost all our pictures are outside. In the fields, in the woods, at the tree farm…even without structured activities our days are split about 60/40 outside time to inside time, other than school hours. Maybe even 70/30…if the weather is nice on the weekends even 90/10! (Yes, my housework suffers for it!) Here are some of the ways we lever the kiddos … Continue Reading…

Using Sermon Notes for Kids in Church…Busy Book of Sermon Notes for Young Ladies Review

Posted on by March 18, 2017 1

Our church recently had First Fruits Revival (hear the messages), which means we were in church several evenings in a row. It was a good chance for the crew to start using their new Sermon Notes books that we got them for Christmas. I posted about them on Facebook after the first night and got a lot of questions, so I thought I’d share some more detail here. It can be a challenge to get children to behave in “big church” as we call the congregational service–as opposed to “children’s church” … Continue Reading…

BeanBoozled Challenge…Activities for a Busy Family

Posted on by March 18, 2017  
The Jelly Belly BeanBoozled Challenge...Activities for Busy Families {at Walking in High Cotton} plus Coupon Codes!

As I mentioned before Christmas, we’re always busy (like everyone else in the world!) but we’re also always on the hunt for family time activities to break out of the chores, work, school, chores, work school routine. When looking for fun activities, we’re usually on the hunt for something for all ages, with simple set up and clean up–or simple set up and no cleanup, like our puzzle activities! So while Christmas shopping with Mr. Fix-It, he grabbed a couple boxes of Jelly Belly BeanBoozled for the crew’s stockings. When … Continue Reading…

Building Puzzles…Activities for Busy Families

Posted on by April 28, 2017  
Building Puzzles...Activities for Busy Families {via Walking in High Cotton}

We stay pretty busy around here. Especially during the school year. Between school, work, the farm, church, and just trying to bathe, eat, and sleep, we don’t find much relax and hang out time. So we work pretty hard to make sure that we set aside some special “family time” activities to do together at home. This usually involves a lot of compromises. Maybe the house is a mess but we ignore it. Or we let everyone eat dinner in the living room so at least we’re still eating together … Continue Reading…

Blogging, Privacy, and Life in a Small Town

Posted on by March 18, 2017  
Blogging, Privacy, and Life in a Small Town (via Walking in High Cotton)

I’ve read several articles recently about whether “mommy bloggers” (I really hate that term, but that’s a post for another day!) are invading the privacy of their children and family by writing and sharing about them on the internet, Facebook, and other social media. It’s an interesting question. Especially for an introvert like me, who found a voice and far-reaching friendships through blogging. And I don’t think there’s an answer, yes/no, this is ok/that is not. I think every writer faces murky ethics at some point if you’re writing non-fiction. … Continue Reading…

What to Do When Chores are Hard

Posted on by July 10, 2017 2
How to handle it when chores are HARD. Be calm, be consistent, be available. {from Walking in High Cotton}

From the time our crew were old enough to be in a backpack carrier, there have been chores around here. By the time they could walk, they were helping drag empty buckets back to the feed shed, putting up fencing, and scrubbing water buckets. So we talk about doing chores a lot here, and you’ll find a lot of pictures of chores and chore time (or choring as we call it when we’re making up our own verbs) on our Facebook and Instagram accounts. And folks are often impressed by how much … Continue Reading…

Lunch Gear When You Pack Every Day! {School Days Series}

Posted on by August 30, 2017  

We’re getting ready to head into yet another school year in just a few weeks, and I know a lot of folks are already in school or full-on back-to-school mode. I’m still sorting and organizing to get us ready right now, and I thought this little {School Days} series might help any busy mommas new to the school scene–or frustrated because what they’re doing just isn’t working. In addition to managing clothes, chores, homework, and school supplies, there’s this whole time slot of our daily life that revolves around lunches. Yep, lunches. … Continue Reading…

A Day Together on the Eastern Shore

Posted on by March 18, 2017 2

Our family and home life has been pretty stressful lately. Just a lot of responsibilities…and a lot of duct tape and wire nuts. Turns out when you buy a brand new house–with all brand new appliances–eventually they’re all not brand new anymore. It also turns out that the lifespan of most major appliances is about the same. Which means all our brand new appliances from when we moved in are now all on their last leg. All. Of. Them. Bless his heart, poor Mr. Fix-It is resuscitating our HVAC on a … Continue Reading…

Spring Break, Stitches, and Sunshine…the Daily Farm Adventures {110}

Posted on by May 11, 2017  

We kicked off Spring Break with a trip to the ER. Speedracer had a playground accident at school and needed six stitches.   I was pretty traumatized by the whole thing. He was fine. {smile} Mr. Fix-It ended up picking him up from school and taking him to the doctor because I was in training for work when the call came through. I think everyone probably preferred it that way (except me) because my husband tends to be cool as a cucumber about these things while I tend to spend … Continue Reading…