When Mom has no voice....

I haven't been able to speak for four days. Four long days. My fever is gone, and the body aches, but I still have a terrible sore throat and pain in both ears. I'm pretty sure it's strep throat with a double ear infection. I'm a mom, I'm qualified to guess and be pretty sure that I'm accurate in my diagnosis. I found some old amoxicillin in the back of the cabinet that hasn't expired so after I self diagnosed my illness, I self prescribed some old antibiotics. They're working! And it still has a refill! Score! Ah, all those trips to the many doctors with sick kids is finally paying off. It's almost like I went to strep throat Med School and graduated at the top of my class!

Yesterday was the first day I had help with the littles. My husband stayed home and took care of us. I sure needed the break! In fact, I got a nice long nap in the afternoon. Now he's sick.

It's been interesting being the mom who can't talk. I can eat and drink if it's extremely hot so that it scalds my throat and kills the pain. But talking, it's not happening. That's just a killer.

Mom! Mom! I wave. Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! I snap my fingers. Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! I clap my hands. Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Fine, I have to go right up to her and look her in the eye and whisper "What?"

I can't talk on the phone. Missed my Saturday morning coffee time with my mom this week. I didn't have anything to tell her, but still, it's hard to be silenced. Can't even have coffee over the phone. We had to exchange emails and read each other's blogs.

The big girls are enjoying the lack of nagging. I haven't been able to nag at either one of them very effectively. I whispered to Katie "when are your invitations gonna be done". I guess that was pretty effective, I got a rise out of her. And I whispered to Lexie, "we need to mail your graduation announcements. Picture?". I also have been texting Lexie, things like "Where are you?". Actually, that's in my Quicktext phrases now! Along with "Time to come home." and "Get your butt home NOW" and "Tell Lavin to buy her own car".

Housework isn't getting done. We are using paper plates and plastic silverware now. The dirty laundry is piled almost to the ceiling. It's amazing that nobody notices but me. But, if I don't ask someone to do it, nobody does it. I figure it's not so bad to go on housework strike every once in a while, especially just before Mother's Day. This really could work in my favor!

Well, it's sure quiet around here when I can't holler back "What?". Someone is yelling "MOM!" from up the stairs right now. I'm ignoring it. The girls have to come and find me so I can whisper to them, "No, I'm sick". You'd think after 4 days, they'd start to figure that one out.

Gracie still tells me "No!" when I say I'm sick. Yesterday she added "Is not a Yowd" (translation: that's not allowed). She's right.


* Update: The ant guy keeps calling. The constant ringing of the phone is driving me insane. Get a clue, buddy, I'm not answering the phone. Oh, and Katie says I wave loud. I'm still scratching my head in wonder over that one.