This week

It’s honestly been a little stressful around the Franco house lately, as we are starting to be swamped with new jobs and clients for our side business, CrossCutt. Michael has been working very hard about six days a week for a few weeks now. We haven’t been able to spend as much family time or as many meal times together, but we’re making it work as best we can. The good news is that God has been taking good care of us, providing abundantly for both our spiritual and material needs. For example, we needed to hire several new CrossCutt employees immediately to make it through the jobs we had scheduled for this week, and we have already hired two excellent young guys in the past three days who have helped Michael and our existing crew out a lot. Praise the Lord!

For the first time in my life, I am ready to fight for that day of rest on Sundays. Michael and I have been reflecting together on the wisdom and necessity of a Sunday day of rest, and what specifically that means for each of us and for our family. 

Last weekend, Michael went up to Ohio to visit my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, and my new baby niece, Lucy Claire Franco. He had a wonderful visit. While he was gone, I packed up my kids and drove to Louisiana for the weekend. The best part of the visit was when all three of my siblings surprised me by driving in to visit on Friday night! We all live in different cities and states now, and it’s a pretty big deal when all of us are in the same city, let alone at my parents’ house to eat a meal together…what an awesome surprise and gift for all of us! 

On to Baby Updates…Faith is sitting up now! Not quite all-the-way-steadily, but better and better each day. She is quite happy with herself. She is a chunky, spunky, very solid six-month-old. She is a good sleeper during the day but is still waking up at night a few times. Faith is also starting solids. She suddenly developed an obvious interest just this week, and it’s been fun to start to include her in family meals. 

Gabriel is a big two year old. He is very tall and solid. And pretty darn handsome! His long lashes, baby blues, and amazing belly laugh are heart-stealers! I love so many little things about him. The way he adores brushing his “teef”; the way he loves his little toddler bed and goes down so cheerfully for naps and bedtime; even the way he loves wearing his little red Crocs everywhere and comes to show me when he figures out how to put them on the right feet. Even though he is so big now, he still seems like such a baby sometimes. After all, he’s only two. Like a lot of first time mothers, I often feel those little anxieties in the back of my head…is he learning enough with me? Is this normal? Should he be still doing that? Shouldn’t he be doing that by now? More Experienced Moms, you know what I mean! I feel like I pray constantly for wisdom to discern how to handle each little parenting and discipline situation in our day–when I remember to pray. As any mother (or father) of two-year-olds knows…they can be exasperating! 

I have so many blog posts swirling around in my head and heart. I am always “pondering” so many things in my heart. There is so much that I don’t blog about for various reasons. It makes me feel better that the Bible tells us our Blessed Mother did some pondering too (Luke 2:19).  It’s been humbling for me to realize that this season of my life is not one in which I can write every day or design and maintain the amazing Humble Handmaid of my dreams. I have so many dreams and plans for this blog, but God keeps telling me to just keep writing and keep waiting. 

As many of you know, I have been writing twice per month for CatholicMom.com for about a year now, and I recently made a decision to write monthly instead. If you follow my articles on that website, you’ll be reading a little less of me for a while! 

Well, there’s an incomplete, somewhat rambling update from your favorite Humble Handmaid:) I hope you are doing well! As always, please feel free to email me any special prayer requests (humblehandmaid_@_gmail_dot_com)–and also please continue to pray for me and my family. 

God bless!