Could you speak up please?

Why, no I can't! ( in a frog whisper) Losing your voice when you have 3 kids is quite a lesson in patience and humility.
I started losing my voice on Easter afternoon. I wasn't feeling that bad, just got hoarse and thought it was allergies. By Monday afternoon I thought I had caught one or both of Piper's flu bugs and had very little voice. My throat was raw and hurting pretty badly. By Tuesday afternoon it was extremely painful to swallow or attempt to talk. Tuesday night I went to an after hours urgent care clinic and was diagnosed with strep throat. Today is the first day I feel like I might live through it. I never knew strep could be so very painful.
I have never been without a voice for this long and it's been frustrating & difficult. It's one of those things you just completely take for granted until its gone. I never realized how much I talk and much I miss it when I cannot do it without intense pain! Talking is the main way I connect with the kids and I have felt so bad to not be able to carry on a conversation with them or read them a book. Piper just looks at me with a puzzled expression and I feel so bad not being able to talk to her. My mom came over yesterday to help and I felt much better that the kids had someone to talk to them and read to them.
Yesterday Hunter came home from school with a permission slip for me to sign for a field trip. I whispered to him and asked if he wanted me to go on the field trip. "Will you have a normal voice by then?" I shook my head yes and he said, "well, then, yes I want you to go."
I also realized I do a lot of needless talking and that sometimes being quiet is a good thing. When you can't talk you have a lot more time to think, and that's a good thing! One thought that crossed my mind was, what if we only had a certain amount of voice to use each day? What would I choose to use it for, what would I choose to not use it for?
Proverbs 21:23 "He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity."
James 1:26 "If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless." whoa! I am praying the God would use this experience to help me and give me self control in this area. Oh, how I need help!

Piper Update
Obsession - Compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea
She is a girl obsessed with walking, if only she had the strength and balance. She spends her days looking for a pair of hands to hold onto so she can walk the house. That is ALL she wants to do, and I am not exaggerating! Every once in a while she will accidentally get distracted by something for a few minutes and then it's like she suddenly remembers, and she's looking for some hands to walk her. I have never seen a child so determined to walk. It's pretty amazing as she did not want any weight on her feet when we first got her. I don't think she'd ever had any weight on them and her muscles were just very weak. Now, she will just keep going and going and going, even when its obvious her legs are getting tired, she will not stop. That's our girl!