voice-less

I woke up yesterday with no voice. I can sometimes sort of talk, but if I do it too much, I pay for it with my throat going from annoying sore to on fire. So, I've been quiet. Really quiet. I would rather not admit that I am coming down with anything, I've just lost my voice and that is all.

So for two days I have to whisper to my family instead of speak. I have to choose my words wisely, instead of saying anything that comes to my mind. It's been a real learning experience. I have noticed a few things, but I will just share a couple here.

Lily is really the only child that noticed. The only thing that changed with Drew and Julianna is that the whisper back to me, instead of speaking in their normal voices. Lily has been very sweet about my having to whisper and has been conscientious of me during these last two days. That has been extremely heartwarming to me. It shows how much she has grown up and that she is thinking of others sometimes. She has been extremely understanding of my predicament and spoken for me on more than one occasion.

The other lesson that stands out is our morning routine. Last night when I went through Lily's Valentines to make sure she had one for every child, I found that she had a couple that she missed.  She had some extra Valentines made, but she had to put their names on them this morning. That meant having to add something extra to our very tight morning routine. Not an easy feat, as our mornings are chuck full as they are. Having no voice made it very difficult to pester her to follow through like I normally would. This meant that she had to do the extra task, eat breakfast, take a bath and get dressed without me right there prodding her with annoying reminders. Instead I had to physically be there to prompt her and move her along. This also required that Drew get himself dressed with out me there to help with his buttons and shoe laces right away. I have to say that they did a wonderful job. And that I may have learned a lesson in keeping my mouth shut and my hands helping. I'm not saying when the voice comes back that I won't slip back into the pestering sometimes, but I'm going to try and be mindful and use my word wisely.

Obviously this lesson was easy to see, but will be hard to practice. I am a talker. And my biggest weakness is not thinking before I speak. I hope that I can be more quiet, listen more and use my hands instead of my words to be helpful to my children.

Remind me of this in a few weeks.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure that Tom is enjoying this lack of voice thing, too. He has been able to complete entire sentences to me without interruption several times in the last couple of days. This is only because I can't speak to interrupt and not because I've had nothing to say. But, I know that I wear on his patience with my constant stream of thought communication style. What can I say? I do my best, people! :)