Even though I know that the neurodiverse are more prone to accidents, I still am amazed at the level of chaos that befalls me just going about my day.

Last Sunday Norm and I had to go to the mall. We had been going to do our mall errands on the same day as we were babysitting but we realised the dogs would be on their own for too long so we decided to split it into two days. We were up and out relatively early on Sunday and I went to Truworths and ran my errands. Then we went to find a suit for Norman at Woolworths. We struggled to find the right fit or colours so he ended up only getting a jacket but he knows the size trousers he needs and could order them online.

On our way out of the shop he spotted some nice trousers in another section and he bought two pair of those. When he called me over to have a look at them I had to go around a display and I felt a sharp pain in my leg and realised I had cut my leg on the unit. It was really aching but I did not look at it until we sat down to eat.

I tried not to focus on it but that is the issue with neurodivergence, if something bothers you, it is ALL you can focus on. I ordered a single Big Ben eggs benedict, but I forgot to take a pic and I did not realise it came without fries so it was a tiny portion. Basically I messed up lol. I ordered fries when she brought the eggs benny, but by the time she got the fries to me I had finished the benny so Norm and I picked at my boiling hot fries and chatted.

We had a good conversation without the distraction of work, the dogs, our phones or the telly.

Norm was served the cutest Africa shaped cookie with his cappuccino. Unfortunately, Cape Town had crumbled off.

Norm looked cutely shaped as always and luckily nothing fell off of him.

On our way out of the mall we were walking slowly and chatting when a random salesman started yelling at us and when I turned my head he ran up to us, bent down as if to tackle me and sprayed foam all over my shoe. I went mental and started screaming “WTF DUDE!!!!!” except I did not abbreviate. I followed him back to his ‘area’ and put my leg out and told him to wipe it off. Then he managed to get it all over my skin & it burned! I was going nuts. The lads in the stall thought me hilarious as I went insane. Why do these things happen to me?

Luckily we had a lovely Saturday. As mentioned in my last post, we had planned to go to the mall so I was up, washed my hair and dressed early. I even put on makeup.

Instead of going out I ended up gardening and faffing about in the garden since it was sunny and beautiful outside. Note I continued wearing this dress.

We were booked to baby sit little Bree so we headed over to their house at 5ish. When we arrived she was running about being silly. She kept asking Norm to pick her up and show her the deer. There were no deer but that was from when she was at Caitlin’s dad’s house which does have deer in the distance on the golf course.

When Caitlin and Wes left we expected drama and tears but Bree grumbled at first but we stayed so calm she just went ‘mommy vroom vroom’ so we went to get some cars inside and play with those. She loved playing with the cars. Then it was time for her dinner and I said, ‘would you like to have your dinner?’ and she nodded vigorously and ran off to the kitchen. I took her food from the fridge and said ‘where is a plate’ and she shook her head and looked around. I opened a cupboard and spotted one so she hopped up and down with glee. I put food on a plate and followed her skipping to the dining room I picked her up and put her in the chair and I put the plate down on the table while I got her settled. She settled down into her high chair and pointed to the plate on the table and demanded ‘Bring dat dere’ and pointed to her high chair table.

I told Norm we had over 30 years of her mama bossing us all around and now we got a wee baby telling us what to do. We had such a laugh. Bree has such a good sense of humour. I would ask her what her name is and she said ‘Bree’ and what is my name and she says ‘Elisi!’ and what is Norm’s name? ‘GRANDMA‘ with emphasis on the MA. She was being silly and what a sense of humour for an 18 month old?

She gabbed the entire meal, no clue what she was on about but I looked her in the eye and tried to follow her train of conversation, nodding along. She started shouting something over and over but we could not figure it out. Finally we realised it was ‘water!’ she was asking for and Norm went to find it and asked from the kitchen ‘where is her water?’ and she chirped back ‘Tea!’ because she had been drinking a cup of Rooibos tea. She is so aware of everything being said and is so tuned into it. She is a clever little cookie.

She pointed at my ring which is a set of 3 bands and said ‘uh oh broken?’ with a sad face. I laughed and said no it is supposed to look like that. Then she pointed to my beaded bracelet and I tried to slide it off of my arm and onto her tiny arm and it broke and deadly beads of a choking hazard size flew everywhere. Then we said UH OH loudly and tried to find them all.

When my knee peeked out from my dress, she looked sad again, pointed at it and said ‘boo boo?’ and I said ‘no just old and a bit fat’ and she laughed.

After dinner she had her bottle of milk which she ran around drinking while playing various games. One was she went up to me and then to Norm, with each of us she would go ‘chomppp’ so I do not know what we were supposed to be eating or whether she was supposed to be eating us or what was going on, but Bree seemed to have it all under control so we just went along. After her bottle was almost finished she came into the bedroom and looked at herself in the mirror saying ‘Hi Bree’ and kissing her face. Eventually I persuaded her to come onto the bed and I managed to change her nappy. Then she very helpfully got her shirt off and put her sleep sack on. I almost wondered if I was needed she seemed better at it than I was, I think I just got in her way. Then I said ‘OK time for a book’ and she happily settled back in my lap for me to read about Karen and the lost little kitten who said ‘No no no‘ and she had to shout the chorus along with me when it got to that part. It was an old print copy of a finger puppet book.

We read a second book and then it was time for bed so I called Norm to help me get her into her cot. I cannot stand up from the rocking chair while carrying her and not kill us both by tripping over the foot stool. Bree said ‘dummy’ and Norm obediently gave her the dummy pinned to her sleep sack. She popped it into her mouth, lay down and settled in to get comfy. Norm and I both blew her a kiss and said ‘I love you, night night’ and she just lay there quietly sucking her dummy. I closed the door and watched her on the little monitor. She flopped around for ages. She would hurl herself from side to side of the cot and then she turned on her tummy and thrashed her legs up and down. This went on for over 20 minutes but she never let out a peep she just thrashed herself to sleep.

Caitlin and Wes came home and Norm and I headed to our home to the delight of the doggies. They act as if we have been away for months if we are only popping out to the shops.

On Monday Chichi made it to work and she said that her house is now dry but smells of damp. Once something gets damp it is hard to get that smell out of it. I feel so bad for her. Luckily I had given her two big pillows with covers so she had those to lie her head on.

I popped out that morning and had a quick hair cut. It is lovely now that I do not have to sit in the chair and have stinky dye painted onto my head. In and out in no time. My hair feels so light and healthy.

Another autistic characteristic is wearing the same clothes over and over. Note I am wearing this dress on Saturday and Monday. I figured as it is getting hair all over it will need washing so wear something that already needs washing. I never go out so I might wear the same clothes for 3 days. I shower and do not sleep in them even though they are often technically pajamas. If I get them actually visibly dirty I will stop, I am not an animal.

Norm is now crazy busy preparing for his conference which is happening soon. I just leave him to get on with it, sort myself out with dinner and watch my house renovation shows on YouTube, draw, colour in or just play with my fairies in the evenings. I keep myself busy. I need a long chunk of my day allocated to disassociation. I visually stim at the twirling windchimes and solar lights.

On Tuesday it was a strangely overcast morning and when I was outside praying I noticed a gardener from across the road watching me. I had just flung my hands up to the sky when a loud clap of thunder sounded and the guy jumped about a foot off of the ground. Norm says now the rumour will be even more prominent that I am a witch and Finn the white wolf is my familiar.

While we were laughing I told Norm it was going to rain so I had told Kim to come later in the week. Norm said no it is not supposed to rain and then a downpour of rain fell from the sky.

I also noticed that the tree limb which has broken at the back of the house is in the area where I have been ‘calling down the vines’ to my wall. There are beautiful flowering vines up at the top of the wall where the sunbirds love and fly up to drink from and I sit and ask the plants to come down to my wall all of the time. Maybe that is why the limb fell down, it was trying to answer my call.

I show the broken limb when filming the growth of the plants I added to the terracing.

I thought about how I am so willing to accept things which I had thought were true ARE true and are related to the neurodiverse way in which my brain works. If I can accept this so easily as factual then why can I not accept my ‘other skills’? I know that the energy behind them is not generated by me, I am but the hollow bone through which the creator works to help me to help others. So why can I not say, this happened with the sky, the birds, the rain, insert ‘miracle’ here and just accept it WAS the message from the animals that I feel that they are trying to send me?

I am trying to just accept me as I am, with the knowledge that what I know, I know. Don’t ask me how I know, I just know! Ya know?

The other day I was chatting to Norm about being driven by two completely adverse needs. The Autistic side likes to plot, plan and pre-determine everything. The ADHD side is completely impetuous without any forethought to what the repercussions of my actions may be. The problem is you never know which side of my brain is going to be in control of the body. Even I cannot predict how I might react to any situation, person or place at any given time. “Buckle Up Buttercups” has always been my strapline. This meme came up this morning which made me laugh as any situation could tilt either way.

On Wednesday Kim came to help us sort out the damage from the storms. He put the fence at the back up again. He cut down the limb that had broken. It was quite a mission for him requiring climbing, reaching, sawing and chopping. It was attached quite high up.

I cringed when he climbed up the wall because of my terrace plants but then thought it a bit rude to be worried about a pickle plant when he was risking his life. He managed to get it all down and cleared away. He also fixed the fence and returned order to my pool area.

He cleaned the pool and aired it out. It needed a jolt of chlorine.

And he set my warthog family back to rights.

I also asked him to move this giant plant that was getting too big for the fairy garden. I only want small or delicate things in this garden so he moved them to the front gardens which we are trying to get established. It may not look so big but I could barely lift that limb it was so heavy. It had a teeny tiny lizard on one of the leaves which jumped off when I moved the plant to show Kim.

It looks much nicer now without the fairy houses being so overshadowed by the monster forest. When he dropped Kim home that afternoon Norm popped into the shops and cooked dinner for us that night. He made perfectly cooked fillet steaks, cheesy potatoes and steamed baby broccoli. I had a tiny steak and Norm had the other 2 steaks.

While Norm was cooking I sat outside watching the sun go down and the solar lights come on. I felt so grateful for our home and for the beauty that surrounds us.

You all know how much I love the fairy garden area. Kim had cleared all the debris at the back I can sit outside in my chair and see the Cape Bulbuls nipping into the cover of the vines to look for insects. The sunbirds hover over the blooms and drink from the cup. It has opened up my view.

I love that when I sit very still there is so much nature to be seen. On Friday afternoon a squirrel ran along the wall from the back to the front garden. The lizards are out when the sun is out. If cold and rainy they tend to hibernate.

Kim also trimmed the spekbooms as I am trying to get them to thicken into a hedge the same height as the terracing. It looks much neater and hopefully encourages the plants to direct their energy sideways rather than height wise.

The Peace Garden is flourishing as well. Next week Kim and I are going to reorganise this area.

Today I am off for lunch with a friend. Norm is busy preparing for his conference which is starting on Monday. His attendees are starting to arrive and last night he was at the airport collecting guests. I will not see him much for the next week.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and week ahead and until then, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxox