Disney Diva @ Home

This bread is not as "Bananay" as a typical banana bread but it delicious for french toast or peanut butter sandwiches.  This recipe is from the manual for my bread machine and I've modified it a bit. It makes a 1 1/2 pound loaf. Just layer the ingredients in the machine and choose wheat bread.

1/2 cup warm water
1 TBS butter
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup white bread flour
3 TBS wheat gluten
1 banana diced
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp dry yeast

If you try this recipe let me know how it turns out.

This is my recipe for Honey Whole Wheat Bread that I make in my bread machine. It is from the manual for the bread machine and I have modified it a little. It makes a 1 1/2 pound loaf.

Remember all you have to do is put the ingredients into the bread machine in the order given.

1 1/4 cups warm water
1 TBS canola oil
3 TBS honey
3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cups white bread flour
1/4 cup gluten (you can add more if you want the bread softer up to a 1/3 cup is fine)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp dry yeast

Adjust the settings to 1 1/2 pound loaf, whole wheat bread, and pick your doneness (I choose light). Let the machine do the rest. Enjoy!!

Let me know if you have tried it and how it came out.

In case you haven't guess it...I love to travel. We usually do a few trips a year that include visiting family, camping, other smaller trips and one "big" vacation. I like to do Disney, a cruise, or something similar for our "big" vacation.

This year was a little different mainly due to financial reasons. A "big" trip was out of the question. My husband's side of the family wanted to do a family trip to the Outer Banks area in North Carolina. Now the beach is not my thing but family is important to me and the price was right.

We were in the car for 11 1/2 hours to make the 7 hour trip down to the Outer Banks. That is always a fun time in the car when you have a 5, 3, and 15 month old. After many potty stops and some traffic we made it down there. Thankfully we made it home in only 9 hours.

We rented a 4 bedroom house with 3 1/2 bathrooms. We had two rooms and a bathroom for our family and the two other couples in the family each had a room and bathroom. We planned ahead and brought down all our food in coolers.

The trip could not have been better. We were able to use the pool/beach club of the owners. That meant that after a 2 mile drive we could park once and go to both the pool and beach at the same time. They were just steps apart. There were also bathrooms, showers, and a restaurant by the pool. Most days we would head down with our lunch packed and set up at the beach. When the kids were bored with the sand, too hot, or found enough shells we could grab a towel and take them up to the pool.

I may not be a beach person but I am definitely a pool person and this pool was awesome. Mainly because half the pool was 2-3 feet deep. My big kids could jump in and play without me having to hold on to all the non-swimmers. It was a very relaxing place to be with them.

There was also lots of things to do besides the beach. Based on the ages of our kids we decided to go to the Lost Colony of Roanoke Settlement. They had a great indoor children's  museum that covers the history of the area from when the colonists arrived to present. They also have a full size replica of the Elizabeth II which is the ship colonists came over on and you can walk onto the ship. They also have some outdoor areas that show more about colonial villages (we didn't get to that part). So much to see and learn there. We had a great time.

Kitty Hawk is also in the area and only a couple miles from where we were. This is where the Wright brothers had their first flights. There is a memorial area there too. There is also an aquarium on Roanoke Island.

There is so much to do in the Outer Banks area for families. I highly recommend checking it out for a family vacation. Rent a house and share it between a few families and it can be a very reasonable vacation. It wasn't quite as relaxing as being in a high end hotel since we had no maids and had to cook our own food (of course we chose to cook to save money) but overall it was an awesome experience and we WILL do it again.

Where do you like to vacation? How has your vacations changed because of financial needs?

The journey of potty training my oldest has been a long and difficult journey of 2 1/2 years. I share this story in hopes of helping another child with the same problems. Please pass this along to anyone you know who has a child with similar issues as my daughter.

At the age of 2 1/2 I started to potty train my daughter. After 8 months of working on it I thought we finally got it. She was just over 3. She was using the potty during the day and night pretty well. She seemed to need to use the bathroom often but I figured it was normal. She did well for about 4 months until...

At the age of 3 1/2 I noticed her going to the bathroom VERY often. We were on vacation and so I would have to take her to the bathroom instead of her just going on her own like at home. I noticed that she had to use the bathroom 3 or 4 times while we were at the pool for only an hour or two. Then I started to get concerned.

I checked with the pediatrician and we checked for urinary tract infections and found nothing wrong. She continued to have frequency, started wetting her pants alot, and would wet a few times a night. Although we encouraged her to use the potty we put her back in pull-ups to just help with the laundry. I was pregnant with my 3rd child at this point and so we thought maybe it was her reaction to that.  We gave her some time to try to work it out until she turned 4.

By her 4th birthday I was starting to get concerned. I started keeping track of her frequency and noticed she was using the potty 12-14 times in an 8-10 hour period. Sometimes it was several times an hour. We were referred to urology at CHOP.

We worked with CHOP for a year until she was 5. We did everything from diet, reconditioning her bladder, and medication. We even worked with a pediatric urology psychologist who recommended a potty watch to help us. She would have times when it got a little better but never close to normal.

When she was 5 years old we went back and met with one of the head urologists to decide what to do next. She is 5, starting kindergarten in 6 months and still wetting up to 5 times an hour. Something had to change and fast. The last alternative was a surgical procedure to put botox in her bladder. Although this might sound crazy it is a procedure they use to help relax the muscles of the bladder. I wasn't comfortable with a surgical option at that time.

During this time I was at Bible study and we were discussing our reliance on God and what we try to do in our own strength. I was convicted to not make a decision reguarding the botox until I prayed about it. I prayed all the way home from the appointment. God knows my daughter's problem, loves her even more than I do,  and will help me to make a good decision if I would only trust him and talk to him about it.

There are a few times in my life when I was able to know very clearly what God was telling me and this is one of them. The thought going through my mind over and over while I was praying was to wait. I wanted to have a solution and in my own strength I would have followed the doctors advice and had the procedure but I clearly heard God telling me to wait. I prayed, "If that is what you want, Lord, then please confirm it through others so I know its what you want."

After I explained the Dr's visit to my husband and two friends each one said, "Wait". So, thats what we decided to do. The Dr's office called back twice over the next few weeks to schedule the procedure and I told them I was just waiting.

Soon after that a very dear friend, and I will always be grateful for this, suggested I switch my daughter from baths to showers. Within a week all her symptoms were gone and she started waking up dry for the first time in 2 years. She continued to have success with much less frequency and no wetting.

We had a little relapse when I changed laundry detergent. Now that I know she is just very sensitive I imediately recognized the soap issue. Now I wash her clothes, especially underwear, in Arm & Hammer Free and Clear. I don't use any fabric softener, dryer sheets, or other stain releasers in her wash. After so many years of frustration and difficulty (which is how I discovered the potette potty) we finally have our potty problem solved.

I hope you find this information helpful if you have a daughter or little girl in your life who seems to have trouble potty training.

We are making an effort, as many are, to eat as healthy as we can and this included reducing or eliminating our consumption of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). As I started looking over the things we had in our house I found it everywhere. It was in our 100% whole wheat bread ($3+ bread), yogurt, cereal, and of course condiments. I don't mind if its in junk food since we limit that anyway but I DON'T want it in what I would consider healthy food.

We also went out to Lancaster, Pennsylvania around this time and I was able to buy some fresh bread at the farmers market and I had an idea...I'm going to make my own bread. I have had a bread machine since we got married and I never use it. Why not start making my own bread. I already make my own jam and I love to cook.

I looked up some recipes, learned a little bit, and then modified the recipes to make some delicious and healthy breads. So far I have made a honey whole wheat, banana whole wheat, and a sourdough bread that all came out great. I tried to make a whole wheat sourdough and that one needs some more work. I have found that by adding gluten to the recipe it helps the bread to be lighter and not so dense, especially if its a whole wheat bread.

I feel so good about making fresh bread and feeding it to my family. For this delicious and healthy bread it costs just about $1 a loaf and that is a huge saving over the healthy bread options at the grocery store. I just smile when I make them french toast for breakfast and they gobble it up! I will be posting some of these bread recipes soon. I hope you give them a try. Let me know how they come out.

I don't know if you've ever seen these but I think they look like the coolest things. It seems like such a great way to pack your child's lunch or snack. You don't have to do several containers and look all over for the lids. You can do a week of lunches and stack them in the fridge ready to grab and go.

They also sell insulated lunch bags that can hold up to 3 of the lunchboxes perfectly. Great for lunch and snacks at school or daycare.

This product was developed by a mom (and I love supporting moms) with families in mind. Easy lunchbox products contain NO Lead, Vinyl, PVC, Phthalates, or Bisphenol A (BPA). They are dishwasher and microwave safe too.  I can't wait to try these out. If I like them as much as I think I might then they will become one of my favorite things. 

This is the new Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6. I don't have this one because I got mine for mother's day (right before this one came out) I'm sure this one is only better than the one I have. I love my kindle. I can bring everything with me on a trip or to my room without haveing to pack lots of books. On my kindle I have my Bible, fiction, non-fiction, self help books, books for the kids, and a dictionary. Everything I want to read all in one place, plus its small.

I love the screen. Its not like a computer screan at all. It is so easy to read on since there is no glare. With the text size adjustment I can always read comfortably.

I love the bookmarking and highlighting too. I can go back and just scan the items I highlighted or use the search tool. Either way I can easilly find infomation I am looking for.

There are lots of free books too! You can check out everything I have read and liked under Favorite Things

The battery lasts a long time when fully charged. If I read a few hours every day my battery will last my whole vacation.

I can't say enough. I LOVE my kindle. I only wish I had waited a little longer to get this new one. Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6

I never was a crier. Through high school and college I wasn't the weepy, emotional one. I didn't cry through sad movies, graduations, or even funerals. I just wasn't a crier. So I'm driving the car with the kids today and an ambulance comes up behind us and I pull over to the side to let them pass. My kids asked me about it and so I explained that someone is hurt and the ambulance is there to help. As I'm explaining this I am working very hard to hold back the tears.

Now I do realize that it is a sad thing to think about the ambulance and what is happening to a family during that time and crying about it may not be that unusual, but that is just the tip of the iceberg for me. I find that I am crying during the songs on the radio, commercials on TV, and movies that aren't even sad. Since I have had my children I have become much more emotional and I think I would classify myself as a crier. I can't talk about my daughter starting kindergarten without tearing up, I started to during her orientation.

I am not saying that I am a constant emotional wreck and need medication. I'm just saying that my hormone levels have permanently shifted since have 3 children and I am more emotional now than before having children. I also think being a mom brings out a new side you never new before. The love you have for your children is so strong and passionate that it can make you emotional to think about anything happening to them or what another family may be going through.

OK, before I start crying let me wrap this up. Anyone else find themselves more connected with their emotions since becoming a mom and having a better sense of identifying with the grief of others? Just wondering.

Here I am, Disney Diva Tips, at home. I'm not always on vacation, although I wish I was, and yet life at home with three kids can be just as Magical as a trip to Disney, so I thought I would start a blog for my life and family. I keep my Disney Diva Tips blog on topic to help you plan a magical Disney vacation. Here I can rant, rave, and express myself on a more personal level. I hope you will follow along.