No Talking

I didn't stay up for the McCain speech. The nagging cold I ignored to watch Palin decided to make its presence known yesterday afternoon, so I went to bed early. Truth be told, I’ve never been a fan of McCain, (McCain-Feingold act anyone?) and am only excited to vote for him because of his VP pick. And even that is qualified because I know precious little about Palin.

All that to say, I didn’t hear it. I went to bed to try to avoid the cold that this morning seems to be saying, “You should have listened to your body four days ago!” But it was the first week of school and I cannot be sick the first week of school. Or the 11th or 18th or the 23rd week for that matter. I am the homeschool mom! I cannot be sick.

Yet this week, I’ve been sick. I lost my voice Tuesday evening and woke up Wednesday unable to do anything but whisper. Thursday was about the same and even though I went to bed early last night, today seems to be a repeat.

I did a lot of whispering and abbreviated sign language. But I couldn’t talk normally which meant I had to do a lot of motioning and gesturing and doing a lot myself that I would normally ask someone to help me do. (By the way, pointing urgently and repeatedly is about as effective as speaking loudly to someone who doesn’t understand English.)

Losing my voice the first day of school made me think of the quote by St. Francis of Assisi:

Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.

I’ve thought about that the last few days, wondering how I can apply it to homeschooling as well as evangelism. Perhaps as I’m going through the year I need to remember that more is caught than taught (oh, I hate clichés) and perhaps I should listen more than talk.

Great in theory.

I just hope I can remember that in week 11, when we’re behind in science, math is again confusifying and Spanish still seems foreign…