Of Sound Mind and Spirit

Once Upon a Time…. there were two sisters. One of these sisters took her children to see Frozen. The other did not  and could not understand why everyone kept singing “Let it Go” all the time. And then on the Once Upon a Time season 3 finale, Emma and Hook returned from the Enchanted Forest of the past with an unexpected stowaway in Rumplestiltskin’s urn; a woman in a shimmering blue dress magically emerged with ice crystals shooting from her fingertips.  The first sister squealed.   The second sister sighed…. and reluctantly borrowed the Frozen movie DVD. Now she “gets it.” We’re both looking forward to the Season 4 return of ABC’s Once Upon a Time with their new 11-episode arc incorporating characters from the movie Frozen.   The Anna and Elsa story will likely be told in the standard OUAT format that see-saws between present-day Storybrooke and flashbacks to the pre-curse Enchanted Forest. We're curious how the Frozen characters will interact with ou

For years, I have desired and prayed about a ladies' retreat at my parish.  A retreat for women to getaway for a weekend, grow closer to Christ and enjoy fellowship with each other. I'm very, very excited to say that we are now finally in the planning stages for our first Catholic Ladies' Retreat for St. Angela Merici!!! We have organized a team of women who represent many of the different seasons of life for women in our parish and we've begun sharing our own experiences, brainstorming, praying and discussing. When discussing the package Catholic retreats that exist or those that we've attended, we decided to create one from the ground up to fit the identity of our parish.  St. Angela Merici in Missouri City is still in the "young" stages of a parish, but no longer a small parish.  Since our first mass in summer of 2008, we have grown to over 1300 households.  It's been quite an explosion that means we no longer all know each other or even run i

16 years ago today I married my best friend.  I know, I know, it sounds like a Hallmark card. But just look at that cute picture of the young us.  We were happy in love with a whole future of married life in front of us.  Brian likes to say that we didn't know what we were getting into back then.  We were young and starry-eyed.  But I really think we both had a good idea of what marriage held for us.  He and I each had strong role models for marriage growing up. Each of our parents demonstrated with their own marriages that marriage was really for better and for worse.  By observing our own parents through the years, we knew there were easy times for a married couple and then times when marriage was hard work.  But in the end, persevering through the hard times made the good times even sweeter. My parents celebrated 47 years of marriage in January Brian's parents celebrated their Golden 50th Anniversary in June Today, on our 16th wedding anniversary,

I've been thinking of writing again, sketching out ideas in my notebook, and struggling to  find time - make time - choose to sit down at the computer after 10 p.m. to actually organize and compose my thoughts. I started writing this 7 Quick Takes last week , week before last , two weeks ago , whenever it was....but was interrupted and couldn't finish. -1- Robin Williams -  My family was saddened to learn about Robin William's death. After reading several stories about his suffering, I felt inspired to write . While trying to be sensitive to my friends' feelings in commenting about my personal experiences, I put a lot of thought into what I said. Apparently I really struck a chord, because two people challenged my opinion and experiences, calling me ignorant and stating "there is no hope" for people suffering with severe depression. One person actually defriended me for sharing my personal feelings and experiences on my personal blog. In writing tha

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