Carrie's Country Cottage

The Speechless Teacher

We, like most of you, have had the yucky gunk going around our house.  Our's was a nausty chest cold and the cough that hangs on for weeks.  We all got sick early last week.  So, by this week we were well on the mend.  For me though things turned ugly.  Monday I was not feeling great, but was able to do most everything.  I just needed to take a nap still when the little ones did.  Then Tuesday I was feeling rather tight in my chest and alomst a bit sick to my stomach.  My cure-all is to go for a walk.  So, that is what I did.  It was a very slow walk; I was having a hard time breathing.  Then at the playground I had a hard time keeping up with our 20 month  old to make sure he did not head for the "big kid" areas.  Tuesday night was a rough one.  I had to really focus on my breathing and sleep sitting up.  Wednesday was much the same as Tuesday; again we went for a walk.  I just knew that fresh air and exercise would help me kick the last of this.  Well, at the half way point (1.5 miles from home) I could not breath!  I had to really focus on the walk home just to breath in for one step and out on the nest step.  By the time we got home I was breathing in for three steps and out for three.  I called Mom (who has a rescue inhailer that I could use) hoping that she would be getting off from work soon.  (We live half way between her work and her home.)  GOD IS GOOD!!!  Mom was just down the street from me when I called.  She was soon here with meds in hand.  Long story short . . . . . I have Bronchitis (Asthmatic Bronchitis to be exact).  It is something I have had twice before, but not in the last 9 years.  So, I missed all the warning signs.  I am now feeling MUCH better. 

All of this made doing lessons interesting.  Since talking makes me cough and coughing makes me unable to breath, I have been a "Speechless Teacher".  The most I have been able to talk is a whisper and only for 10-20 minutes at a time.  The children have been GREAT.  They have really stepped up to fill the need of caring for the little ones and being my voice.  I often times have to catch whoever is nearby and ask him/her to holler down the stairs/into the back yard for who I am in need of.  They think this is sort of funny since most times I tell them: "Go down/out and tell them.  I could have hollered if that was what I wanted."

I think God gives us Independent Spirits trials like this so that we are forced to depend on others.  It is good to let, even need, others to serve us.

Praying Health and Happiness for you and your loved ones;

Carrie