Author Archives: Camilla

Recipe: Almond Flour Cookies

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I’ve been making these gluten free almond flour cookies for over a year for our family and we LOVE them. Lillian is sensitive to gluten and lactose so she is on a gluten free diet and very low lactose diet. These are super easy to make and all three team members, Thomas, Lillian and Camilla, enjoy the taste and texture.

Classic Cookie (grain-free)

(adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups almond flour – I use Trader Joe’s Just Almond Meal (1 lb) (amazon affiliate link)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons coconut oil, softened – I use Trader Joe’s Organic Virgin Coconut Oil (amazon affiliate link)
1/2 teaspoon gluten free vanilla extract
1/4 cup local honey or Grade B Maple Syrup or organic Agave Syrup
2 tablespoons Guar Gum or Arrowroot Powder (substitute for egg) or 1 whole egg (I’ve done this both ways. Just has a bit different texture depending on which you use. I was out of eggs one day and the kids wanted these cookies. Just happened to have some Guar Gum!!

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350˚. In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour, baking soda, guar gum (leave out guar gum if using an egg) and salt, and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine the coconut oil, vanilla and maple syrup, (add the egg if not using guar gum) and mix well.

Add the wet mixture with the dry and mix well. If it seems to dry, experiment with adding a tablespoon or two of water or a dash of almond milk (My favorite is Trader Joe’s Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk). I play around with it each time I make this recipe so the cookies are never the same. They always taste good though!

**LOVE OFFERING** If you find this content helpful, I invite you to toss a tip in the love offering bowl. With oceans of gratitude … Camilla ….

love-cards-in-a-basket-october-2016

Drop about a tablespoon of batter onto a baking sheet sprayed with olive or coconut oil cooking spray (or use Silpat or parchmant paper). Bake at 350 for 10 or 15 minutes. Check the cookies at the halfway mark. I like to turn mine over at this time.

Allow em to cool and then pour yourself a big glass of almond milk and enjoy those babies!

This article is now part of my inventory in Recipes.

 

Gift Ideas from Nature – More Rocks

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A dear friend severely injured her back several months ago which led to emergency surgery. I wanted to give her a little something to enjoy during her recovery that would also be inspiring once her back was healed. This is what I came up with …. a lovely bag of ROCKS! That’s me! I love creating gifts with inspiring gifts from nature.

For about a week I collected just the right mix of rocks as I was on my 45 minute walk. Tapping into my inner artist, I wrote a word on each rock and drew a heart or sun on the back of each one. Then, I created a HappYness Treasure Map™ to accompany the beautiful bag of rocks!

HappYness Treasure Map ™
+ One Bag of Inspirational Rocks

Ingredients: One bag of Inspiring Rocks to guide you in feeling good, inspire you and to make part of your daily adventure. One HappYness Treasure Map.

Dosage: Remove one rock from bag daily.

Side Effects: Good feelings, creativity, acceptance, HappYness and inspiration

Instructions: Each morning slide your hand into your bag, shift the rocks around in your fingers until you find just the right one, and pull it from your bag. The following are some suggestions to go along with the phrase on your chosen rock. Continue choosing a rock every day until your bag is empty. Put them all back in and start again! Have FUN!

______________________________________________________________________

Acceptance – Is there something that is causing you disharmony due to not wanting to accept?

Morning thoughts: I have no control over other people or how events play(ed) out. I accept this and make peace with it. I accept myself just as I am. I am loving, kind and wonderful. Change wording to suit you.
Evening thoughts: I am grateful to have reached acceptance of _______________.

Attention – Be clear about what you are giving your attention. Does it relate to your intentions for your life, for the week, or for the day? Bring your attention back to your intention.

Be Flexible – Use today as a reminder to be flexible …. At least once during the day sing this little song to yourself,

“Row, row, row YOUR boat,
GENTLY down the stream,
MERRILY, MERRILY, MERRILY,
Life is but a DREAM.”
Row your own boat, be HappY and create your dream!

Faith – Remind yourself throughout the day to have faith in yourself.

Forgiveness – Today is the day to forgive yourself and anyone else. Write a letter to yourself or someone else detailing what you are forgiving yourself or that person for … No need to give it to anyone. Just write it and reach the place of forgiveness within yourself.

Gratitude – Make today about being thankful. Take as many opportunities as possible to express silently or out loud your gratitude.

Intention – Review your intentions. What are your intentions for your life, this year, this week or this day. Have you taken a detour? If so, either make peace with the detour or get back on your path.

Intuitive – Be sure to check with your intuition today on your decision making. Trust yourself.

Kindness – Make today about spreading kindness to yourself and those you encounter. Could be with a smile, a hug or even a silent blessing for the person.

Laugh – It’s good medicine and good for the soul. LAUGH a lot today!

Love – Do everything you do today full of love from your innermost self.

Purpose – What is your purpose? What do you feel you are supposed to accomplish during your life? It’s okay not to know. Just ponder it …

Release – Today is the day to release any guilt, judgments, hurt, or any other negative feelings. Be one with the feeling, embrace it, then release it.

Self Love – Do something kind for yourself today. Nurture yourself. What makes your heart sing? A walk outside, reading a good book, enjoying a divine meal, doing absolutely nothing … do IT.

Well Being – Focus on your well being. Know that you have well being within you.

Morning thoughts: I am an instrument of well being.
Evening thoughts: I am grateful for my well being.

©2013 CamillaDowns.com

Thomas and Lillian made my friend a little something also. Homemade cards using some sort of paper that an artist friend gave to us when she moved out of the area.

This article is now part of my inventory in Inspired Living.

I enjoy taking the time to share information with y’all that I think is helpful and give you ideas to live an Inspired Life. So, if you feel this helped you in any way, toss a tip into the tip bowl on the way out of Inspired Living.

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If you can’t afford to donate, please feel free to pass this article along to others who might get some help from it. Thank y’all to everyone who has donated and shared in the past. I don’t always get a chance to respond, and the donations, shares and comments are my indicators that what I share is helpful. Thank YOU!

 

Inspiring and Positive: D iz for Different Amazon Review

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★★★★★ D Iz For Different is a wonderful book. The story is informative as real life trials and triumphs are discussed. Positive solutions are always put forth and the reader is left with an uplifting experience. The book inspires the reader to think about things in a positive new light and to think outside the box we so often find ourselves in. I highly recommend this book. Blessings! Cheryl

If you would like to write an Amazon review of D iz for Different go here (amazon affiliate link). It’s not necessary to have purchased the book through Amazon. If you have an Amazon account, you can write a review.

The Team TLC Bucket Lists

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Some people call them bucket list. I choose to give it a different spin. Team TLC is calling ours an Adventure List! That’s right! Last week I gave a map book to Thomas and Lillian and told them to make a list of everywhere in the World they want to visit. Then I told them to make a list of everything they want to have, be or do.

The following is my Adventure List. It’s continually being added to so I will designate a dedicated page on this website for our Adventure Lists.

This is a list of experiences I want to have, be or do. They are in absolutely no particular order. I simply write them down as inspired.

Let me be clear. I make this list with detachment. If I get to experience these items then WooooHooooo. If not, then WoooooHoooooo. I’m still a happy and peaceful person. The way I see it, my happiness comes from within.

Camilla’s Adventure List:

  1. Dance in a theatrical play
  2. Look for 4 leaf clovers in a beautiful warm meadow with a light breeze
  3. Vacation or temporarily live in a house on a quiet lake with warm non-humid temperature
  4. Have my own garden and grow food
  5. Learn to and play a woodwind instrument
  6. Experience a natural/mineral hot spring
  7. Dance in the street … perhaps to Cindy Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” 😉
  8. Have honeysuckle growing in my yard
  9. ✔Vacation in Tahiti – Done
  10. Receive in the mail a legitimate check made out to ME for 6 figures or more
  11. Live in a bungalow over the ocean in the South Pacific for 1-3 months or longer
  12. Go on a tropical cruise with Thomas and Lillian
  13. Learn how to paint and create at least one inspired painting
  14. ✔Experience natural child birth – Done … Twice!
  15. Live or vacation in a cabin in the woods for at least one month if not longer.
  16. Start a flash mob dancing to Lady GaGa’s “Born This Way” and “We Are Family”
  17. Milk a cow ….. Hug a cow (updated March 2019)
  18. ✔Visit England and Scotland – Done
  19. Be on a stage in front of thousands of people and at the least inspire and encourage them to ponder how they are choosing to think and at the most create a positive shift in their life
  20. “For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.” -Judy Garland … Be in a soulful relationship …
  21. Live on a boat for at least a month or longer
  22. Pick apples in an apple orchard
  23. ✔Live in Reno – Done
  24. Collect fresh honey … visit a bee farm
  25. Live in a beach cottage on the beach in southern California and Florida
  26. Learn and practice yoga
  27. Anonymously and randomly share with and help others
  28. ✔Get a degree – Done
  29. Picnic in a field of wildflowers
  30. Have morning coffee on a beach while watching the sun rise
  31. Have a full and uninterrupted month to myself to read and write … if not longer
  32. ✔Make stretch bracelets that mirror food, flowers and nature – Done
  33. Experience a cross country train ride with Thomas and Lillian
  34. Visit Greece
  35. ✔Own an almost new Cadillac – Done
  36. Go kayaking in Lake Tahoe and Washoe Lake
  37. Hike the Tahoe Rim trail with Thomas
  38. Live in a luxury hotel for at least a few months
  39. Visit as many libraries as possible in the United States
  40. Spend at least 3 months exploring California
  41. ✔Be a Paralegal for 10 years – Done
  42. Learn and play lawn bowling
  43. Learn and play shuffle board
  44. Have orange, lemon and lime trees in my yard
  45. Live in a tree house for at least 3 months – Swiss Family Robinson style
  46. Live on an island in a hut for at least 3 months – Gilligan’s Island style
  47. Have an Airstream. Travel to beaches, lakes and campgrounds for a while.
  48. Live in a  town that’s so small you can walk to and from anywhere you need to go
  49. Visit Walden Pond
  50. ✔Own and live in a 3 story house – Done
  51. Have a comfortable chair swing hanging from a nice big shade tree
  52. Stay or live in a place that has an outdoor living area with a view of the ocean
  53. Stay or live in a place that has an outdoor living area with a view of a meadow
  54. Attend and have fun at a luau on the beach
  55. Anonymously gift a vacation or some sort of respite/relaxation package to a family or person
  56. Vacation or live in a lighthouse for at least 3 months
  57. ✔ Live in a tiny home (We have lived in a 1 bedroom/1 bath 810 square foot condo from August 2015 – to current) Done
  58. See our Team TLC Bucket Lists page for further updates …

Thomas’ Adventure List:

  1. Make new Lego thing
  2. Plant my plant
  3. Find proof to see if aliens are real
  4. Find cool car
  5. Write a book
  6. Decorate sandals
  7. Laugh at beach
  8. Make lock
  9. Make device
  10. Receipt Machine
  11. Nintendo
  12. Northern California – Beach, Hotel and Sunset
  13. Las Vegas – Performance and Lights
  14. Florida – Disneyland
  15. China – Cool!
  16. Texas – Hot!
  17. Hawaii – Hula Dance and Water
  18. Georgia
  19. Louisiana

Lillian’s Adventure List:

  1. California – Lake Tahoe
  2. Florida – Sunshine
  3. Georgia – Dolphins
  4. Hawaii – Hula Dancing
  5. Indiana
  6. Maine
  7. Helena, MO – gemstone
  8. West Virginia – Marbles

Thomas and Lillian are still adding to their lists. They’re still getting the hang of all this!

This article is now part of my inventory in Inspired Living.

I enjoy taking the time to share information with y’all that I think is helpful and give you ideas to live an Inspired Life. So, if you feel this helped you in any way, toss a tip into the tip bowl on the way out of Inspired Living.

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If you can’t afford to donate, please feel free to pass this article along to others who might get some help from it. Thank y’all to everyone who has donated and shared in the past. I don’t always get a chance to respond, and the donations, shares and comments are my indicators that what I share is helpful. Thank YOU!

 

Book Musings: Awakened Imagination by Neville

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…. Rivers, Mountains, Cities, Villages,
All are Human, & when you enter into
their Bosoms you walk
In Heavens & Earths, as in your own
Bosom you bear your Heaven
And Earth & all you behold; tho’ it
appears Without, it is Within,
In your Imagination, of which this World
of Mortality is but a Shadow.
William Blake

I discovered this absolute gem of a book, Awakened Imagination/the Search (amazon affiliate link), by Neville, in the used book store. I had heard the name Neville mentioned by Wayne Dyer in his audio, Making the Shift: How to Live Your True Divine Purpose (amazon affiliate link).

It’s a quick read at only 94 pages. Awakened Imagination is best read without interruption or distraction and some place quiet. Yes, it is deep, deep, deep. If I had tried to read the book before this year, I may have been scratching my head. That’s the beauty of these types of books. If we don’t get it the first time around, we stick it back on our shelf and pull it out again later.

Definitely an enlightening book about our imagination and how it is the creator of our World. I enthusiastically suggest getting this one when you have the opportunity. If it leaves you scratching your head, just put it on your bookshelf and pull it out again 6 months or a year from now. Have fun!

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” –Albert Einstein

Why It Matters: 20th Annual Chromosome 18 Conference

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Why does this matter so much?

I’ve been carrying on a great deal about the upcoming Chromosome 18 Conference this July in Savannah, Georgia, thought I’d take a minute to touch on why this is so important to us.

A sense of belonging, of being amongst our own tribe, is one of the reasons this matters. The conference is packed with back to back educational and informational sessions covering areas concerning infants, toddlers, kids, transition age and adults. Sessions about sensory processing, physical and occupational therapy, speech therapy, growth hormone, special needs trusts, IEP meetings, transition, updates regarding research, feeding issues, and much, much more. There is a separate track for the Self-Advocates, as well as a separate track for Siblings. There is also more bonding time after daily sessions are over with a Mom’s night out, Dad’s night out and an outing for all families together.

Lillian’s only friends are her chromosome 18 friends. She texts, emails and writes letters to and with them. They get to see each other face to face at the conference. The bonds they have established grow and deepen. They get to swim together, eat together, be silly together and perhaps even talk about their parents and siblings together with someone who GETS IT! They understand each other. They feel comfortable with one another. She has friends all over the World due to a difference in one little ole chromosome.

I’m excited about the opportunity for Thomas to meet other siblings, share with them, form new friendships and know that he is not alone in the path that he travels as sibling to Lillian.

We learn, we grow, we bond, we are inspired, we laugh, we cry, we come home with information we can use. We each go home knowing that we all belong, knowing we are not alone, knowing that we have a special something in common through an uncommon chromosome.

I wrote an article upon returning from the 2012 Chromosome 18 Conference which details even more of the reasons why this matters to Team TLC. Go here to read about our Journey to Magical Moments.

Thomas and Lillian have decided they want to help get Team TLC to Savannah this July. They stumbled across something in our garage that they decided to get creative with … You can read about it here.

For anyone who does not know us, here’s a little more information. Lillian, my 11 year old daughter, has a genetic difference referred to as 18p-. She is missing a piece of her short arm of chromosome number 18. This affects 1 in 50,000 people. The Chromosome 18 Registry & Research Society provides an online venue, private and public, for us to connect. They perform genetic research and are there to guide us and answer our questions. The Registry is located in San Antonio, Texas. It exists because a Mom, Jannine Cody, was told about 20 years ago that her daughter had 18q-. Her advocacy, strength and courage led to what we have available to us today. You can find even more information by going here.

Team TLC Custom Stretch Bracelets

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My 7 year old son, Thomas, and 11 year old daughter, Lillian discovered my stash of beads in the garage. I went through a short lived period in 2007 making stretchy bracelets as a creative outlet. They have decided they will make bracelets to earn money to attend the 2013 Chromosome 18 Conference this July in Savannah, Georgia!

Each bracelet is custom made when you order. Team TLC bracelets are made with different combinations of Swarovski crystals, fresh water pearls in beautiful, traditional, cool and funky colors, nut beads, lava beads, hematite beads, and much more. Not all beads previously listed will be used in each bracelet. We decide how and which beads to use for creating your bracelet according to your favorite colors. You can also choose to have an acrylic or Czech Pressed Glass Bead number 18 included on the bracelet.

Visit The Team TLC website to learn more about the bracelets and visit the article titled “Why It Matters” to learn more about why this is so important to us …..

Grace – D iz for Different Amazon Review

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(Tele at her Breakfast at Tiffany’s themed 50th birthday party with Noreen Leary on the far left – May 2012)

★★★★★”Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” ~ Wayne W. Dyer …. This is the premise for Camilla Down’s message in her book “D Iz for Different.”

Taking sets of circumstances that could be seen as devastating and looking for the good and building on that for her strength. These lessons can be applied to everyday life and everyday challenges shared in heartwarming words of wisdom from years of getting back up, dusting herself off and moving forward with Grace. You owe it to yourself to read this book. – Tele Raack – March 25, 2013

If you would like to write an Amazon review of D iz for Different go here (amazon affiliate link). It’s not necessary to have purchased the book through Amazon. If you have an Amazon account, you can write a review.

Book Musings: Walden

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“Fault finders will find fault in paradise.” –Henry David Thoreau

Just finished listening to Henry David Thoreau’s Walden audio book (amazon affiliate link). I found it to be so moving and inspiring. The conclusion was one of my favorite chapters. “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away.” -Henry David Thoreau

Row your OWN boat, Gently DOWN the stream, Be MERRY and create your OWN dream! Happy Rowing Y’all!

Gift Ideas from Nature – Rocks

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Thomas went on a quick bike ride this morning before school … and brought home gifts for me and Lillian …. ROCKS. This kid totally Rocks!

Perhaps he was inspired by the gift Lillian and I brought him from our date this past Sunday. We brought him a sticker from Squeeze In and a weed eater string we found at the park. He liked the weed eater string best!!

My wish is that y’all will be inspired to show some gratitude/kindness to someone you love today by giving them a homemade or nature made gift! Have FUN!! Visit here to see and read about a get well gift I gave to a friend that is rock inspired!

This article is now part of my inventory in Inspired Living.  

I enjoy taking the time to share information with y’all that I think is helpful and give you ideas to live an Inspired Life. So, if you feel this helped you in any way, toss a tip into the tip bowl on the way out of Inspired Living.

PayPal Tip Bowl

If you can’t afford to donate, please feel free to pass this article along to others who might get some help from it. Thank y’all to everyone who has donated and shared in the past. I don’t always get a chance to respond, and the donations, shares and comments are my indicators that what I share is helpful. Thank YOU!