setting goals {April}.

Look, I'm already doing better than last month because I'm publishing my monthly goal check-in before the end of the month! As a reminder, April's goals were: -Shower weekly. Life with a newborn, y’all. -Continue to write in my journal to my daughter AND write Anthony some good ole fashioned love notes. -Baptize/confirm Monkey (Maronite Rite for the win!). April's completion rate: 100%! I've actually managed to shower nearly daily since coming home with our daughter. I think there have only been two or three days so far when I haven't gotten a shower in. At first it was fairly easy since I had at least one other adult in the house with me, but even since my husband has returned to work I've managed to nab the daily shower while the little one naps. Hooray for cleanliness! I've written our daughter a short letter about my hopes for her and some details I didn't want to forget about the day she was born. I also wrote my husband a long overdue love note. There's just something about pen on paper that is timeless and I hope I never lose that - with my husband, our daughter and any future children we may have. Monkey was baptized and confirmed on Divine Mercy Sunday. Even better, her confirmation saint is St. Faustina. My husband, as I mentioned, is Maronite Catholic, which is an Eastern Rite, primarily based in Lebanon. It was an incredibly beautiful ceremony. Similar in some ways to Roman Catholic baptism, but different in other ways. My favorite part (aside from the ridiculously awesome smell of the oils on her head - it was so hard to bathe her!!) was when the priest placed our daughter on the altar as a sign of her entrance into the Church. It reminded me so much of the Pieta. I had a friend in college who saw the Pieta in Rome and couldn't stop talking about how Mary is, even after Christ's death, placing Him on an altar, always willing to leave Him in the arms of God. Seeing our daughter on the altar evoked those same feelings in me - a powerful reminder that she is but a gift from God, ours to cherish, hold and raise into a saint. Up next, May's goals: I’ll be honest: it is really hard to set goals much after April because I have no idea what life with a child will look like, much less how much sleep I’ll actually get. -Blog about life with a baby and reflect on motherhood (ya know, with a baby on this side of the womb) (It would appear that I'm already doing this, so we'll just keep going with it, especially as I transition back to work!)