Inspired by . . .

Noelle is loving this cooler weather and the chance to go outside a bit more. We've added into our morning routine some time for her to wander around on the deck in the back before her morning nap. I put her baby gate up so that she can crawl up and down the one step from the back door to the deck, but she can't crawl down the 5 concrete steps to the grass. The dogs usually lay out there while she plays. She is having a ball stomping around on the deck in her shoes and looking at the trees and grass and the other houses and cars.

Request: Does anyone have any good homemade bread recipes? The kind that are tried and true and that I won't be able to mess up? I LOVE making homemade bread and would like to move past only making it in my bread machine, but I'm always hit or miss with the success and I hate wasting it. (The last batch I tried of Oatmeal Bread was really and truly inedible.) Suggestions?

Response to Comments:

Mrs. Darling: Hi!! It took me a bit, but the new names are catchy. :-) Very clever!!!

LeeAnn posted her daily routine on her site yesterday and I thought, "Wow!" I'm inspired to try and get my routine on paper - I know it would help me when I stop for a minute and think about what I should do next! Here's a start on it (all times are approximate) . . .

~ 6 - 6:30 a.m. - Travis' alarm goes off; Noelle starts stirring
~ 6:30 - 7 a.m. - cuddle with Noelle, give her morning bottle
~ 7:30 - 8 a.m. - feeding her breakfast, making T. lunch, washing up any glasses/dishes/popcorn bowl from previous evening, feed puppies
~ Around 8 a.m. - say goodbye to Daddy at the door and wave
~ Between 8-9 a.m. - hose down the highchair after breakfast, get Noelle dressed, put her in her pack-n-play while I take a quick shower, get me dressed.
~ Vacuum our family room (the room with live in), sweep the kitchen, put in any laundry, quick pick-up and check off a few tasks on my Motivated Moms cleaning system.
~ N. goes down for a nap between 9-9:30 a.m.
~ After that I mix-up any bread I want to make or prep anything that is going into the crockpot for dinner.
~ Time to sit at my desk and get some church work done. Check email to make sure there is nothing that I have to tackle first thing. If there are no immediate fires to put out . . .
~ Work on my Bible study for 30 minutes - an hour depending on what I can done
~ Back to work at the computer for a bit. Make any calls I need to, send emails. I also usually try and blog during our morning nap time if I can.
~ 11:00-ish a.m. - Noelle is up from her nap and ready for her lunch. I make lunch for her and get her started, then make something for me and we eat together.
~ Run errands after lunch. Now that it's a little cooler in the day, we run our errands between lunch and afternoon nap. Exception to this is if we have to go to Walmart or Sam's. If we have to go there, we go first thing in the morning to beat the crowds! Also, I try to run errands on Tuesday and Wednesday only, and other than the library maybe on Friday, be home for the other days. Our days are so much better when we are not running from sun-up to sun-down!
~ If no errands, then we play at home, she follows me (and "helps") while I do some housework, fold laundry, etc.
~ Back down for nap #2 around 2:30 - 3 p.m. I try to work on church stuff for another hour if needed. Other possible tasks include prep for dinner, straightening our big room again, working on any paper crafts I need to do (if I need to make a birthday card or gift), etc.
~ Noelle up from afternoon nap between 4 - 4:30 p.m. Give her a dinner-time bottle and let her play while I finish anything I need to for dinner.
~ Travis home between 5:30 - 6 and we eat usually as soon as get gets home. (I try and stall Noelle until he gets home so we can all eat together - doesn't always work).
~ Family play time with Daddy after dinner and and then bedtime bottle by 7:30 and bed by 8:00 p.m.
~ After that, Travis usually works on the computer or reads, I read or journal or work on stuff around the house and we hang out.

Of course there are daily variations to this schedule and I can see where I need to flesh it out some, but it's a start. :-) Tuesdays, Noelle and I eat lunch with my Mom and sister; Wednesdays I have Bible study at church and we have our Community/Cell Group in the evening; Thursdays usually have music rehearsal in the evening but Travis and I try to alternate going so that we don't keep N. out too late.

Now looking at this, I realize this is a pretty boring blog, but it took too long to delete. :-)

Happy Friday, all. And check out my cool Women at Home graphic (down below) that Becky made me. :-)