OCD

Big J suffers from a bit of OCD. Some would say it is just the Autism, but I think it's a little of both.

He walks around the house shutting certain doors. The toilet, laundry, bathroom, my ensuite and my wardrobe.

He straightens the tea towels on the oven door.

He makes sure the bin is in the right spot.

He pushes rubbish down into the bin to make room for more.

And if anyone ever puts something in the bin, he waits and watches the bin lid go down.

(We have a sensor bin, you wave your hand over the sensor and the lid opens)

He pushes the chairs in at the table.

No drink bottle or jug can be left in the kitchen without him tipping out the contents and throwing the empty bottles in the sink.

He puts his dirty washing (and sometimes clean washing) into the dirty clothes basket.

(which is a good thing I'm not complaining about it - the dirty washing that is)

Once I put an extra pillow on his bed so he had two

 ( I don't see what's wrong with that - I have 6 pillows on my bed) 

until I got tired of picking it up off the floor because he kept throwing it there.
He is an energy saver - he walks around our house turning off lights especially at dusk when I need the light on in the kitchen!

He also does not like the way I arrange cushions on my lounge.

This is what my lounge room looks like according to me.

And this is what it looks like according to Big J!

It kind of makes me smile!

Mt Lofty Botanic Garden

On Tuesday, the last day of our 5 day weekend I wanted to take a family trip across the way to the Mt Lofty Botanic Garden to take some pics.

We got into the car, drove over there only to find the car park full and overflowing out into the surrounding streets.

We found a spot to leave our car and low and behold....when I opened Big J's door he looked at me and said "No Thanks" and shut his door again!

Sigh.

Big SIGH.

This happens sometimes.

The not getting out of the car thing.

Quite frankly it is very annoying.

All I wanted to do this weekend was take pictures here!!!!!

We used to come here a lot a few years ago.

It was a great Sunday afternoon activity going for a walk as a family and enjoying the beautiful trees and greenery.

Maybe we have left it too long between visits?

Maybe because we were not parked "in" the car park he couldn't tell where he was?

Probably not.

Oh well, so we all got back into the car and drove off.

Yesterday however Big J had a quick one night stay away from home so in the afternoon
 I took A-J and little J and off we went.

Here are some of my favourite photos.

DisABILITY

I started this blog at least 3 or 4 months ago. Since that time it has sat, unattended in my little corner of cyber space. Soon after I started it I wondered what on earth I would write about, let alone if it would be remotely interesting to anyone!

Until today.

After work I went to the supermarket with 2 of my 4 children. Big J and Little J.
Big J has Autism is about 7 feet tall and can be very vocal at the shops sometimes.

I was amazed this afternoon at the number of people STARING at us.

Now I know that it looks odd -  Me a 5.5 foot, thirty-something mum holding the hand of a 17 year old giant walking through the shops but really???
Now Big J is a handsome boy. And he looks "normal" so to speak but he walks on his toes and flaps his arms, sways from side to side and he really could not care less if he was bothering you or not so that is not really "Normal".

But the number of people I noticed today who were just staring and not looking away when my eyes met theirs baffled me. And the other thing I noticed was that they were all over 50. Big J was very vocal today and his voice boomed through the shopping centre, and it does cause people to look around suddenly and I understand that, but people were just staring, not smiling at me when my eyes met theirs.

I went to the sushi bar after tackling the supermarket to buy Little J a snack. An elderly lady in an electric wheelchair was in line before us. She had slurred speach, was difficult to understand and she was pointing at the sushi.
The sales assistant was polite and trying to figure out what it was that she wanted.
I bent down to ask her which one she was after.
Her swollen, bent finger touched the class in front of us pointing at the vegetarian one. "Vegetarian" I said. She moved her finger over to the sign that said "Salmon".
 "Salmon" I said and she nodded. The Salmon was sold out . I looked through the glass. There were lots of tuna sushi rolls left. "You could have a tuna one" I suggested and she smiled and nodded.

Relieved that we had found something she wanted I stepped back, still holding on to Big J.
She went to her coin purse attatched to the tray on her wheelchair. Her fingers not doing what she wanted as she fumbled to open her purse and empty the coins. After finally managing to get it open she tipped out the money... 10 cents fell out.
At this point she started crying. Her eyes welled up. I am sure she was frustrated by the limitations of her body. "Bag" she said pointing to her bag attatched to the side of her chair. By this time the sales assistant and another customer were standing near her as well as me still holding onto Big J. None of us were going to go fishing around in her bag for $2.50. I offered to pay for her sushi just as the assistant said for her to not worry about paying today.

As I left the shops today I thought of all God's children.  As different as we all are, we are ALL children of God.
We are all precious in His sight.
I stopped to help a lady today, and one day I might be that person needing help.