Anna M. Aquino

This weekend my husband went to Canada for a family event. I decided this afternoon to welcome him home I would make a flan for his return. I got my ingredients together and then starting dealing with a slew of questions from the kids. “What are you doing” “How does the sugar melt” “That doesn’t make sense mom”. Their questions were getting a tad annoying and I was trying to be a good mom. I suddenly had a creativity memory moment where I remembered in one of my favorite book series’ ever The Little House on the Prairie when Laura and her sisters made candy from molasses and the snow. I figured I could melt some sugar throw some food coloring in, and let it cool in some ice water and it would give us a similar affect. I was trying to do something fun for the girls but the questions kept parading in my kitchen. “How is that going to work” “Candy is made out of sugar?” “Why did it turn green, wasn’t it blue before?” “Can I stir it?” “Mom, is it ready yet?” “Mom what are you g

I usually pay little to no attention when someone tries to come out and say when they think the rapture, or the world’s end will be in the future. This last wave of end day proclaimers was led by a group of people following a man named Harold Camping. I did not listen to his thoughts as to why he thought May 21, 2011 would be the last day, nor did I care to. However there was a stream of media regarding his claims and I was asked by an old friend who I’ve been praying for years for my thoughts on it, and I thought I’d pass some thoughts of mine on for today’s blog. Indecently I have heard that Camping after saying the date would be some time in the 90’s, claiming May 21st, has now changed his story to October 21st. Matthew 24:42 (NIV) 42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. Luke 21:8 (NIV) He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them.

My parents live very close to my aunt in a heavily wooded area. I grew up going over to my aunt’s house often. My dad purchased for my aunt several ducks and one goose many years ago. While those animals have long since been gone, that goose I still remember. I was mortified of that thing. If you snuck up on it then maybe it would seem innocent it’s nice white feathers all it place, but then it would turn around and look like the goose version of the exorcist. I had red eyes and teeth. That thing hated me, and I can remember it chasing me around the yard as a little kid. I would sneak up to the porch hoping I could open and close the door before it figured out it was me. That evil goose really scared me, but it’s so funny to think about this now because even when it caught me it just would peck at me. Maybe he’d nip at me and pinch me a little, but He really couldn’t do anything to me. But never the less it mortified me. I had all sorts of visions of this evil goose. To

I love sharing the story I get to share with you today. It’s got to be one of my favorite ones of God’s provision that’s happened to me over the years. I really felt that this was the day to share it in this blog format. About 6 or 7 years ago Dan and were in a meeting where they were asking for a special offering. Now I am all for giving to the house of God. I know it takes money for ministry. I 150% believe in tithing. It works. But this offering was for above and beyond. It was a special missions offering. Dan and I had very little extra. I do want to preface this story with just make sure when you do these things you know its God and not your own flesh. Because I’ve seen people get a bit loopy in this area. We were setting in church and Dan leaned into me and whispered, “We’re supposed to give X amount.” Now I couldn’t have heard him clearly. The amount he was telling me was way above and beyond what would be extra for us. It was the amount of our groceries for the

Dan and I lived in Pittsburgh, PA right after we were married. We rented the back end of this old house in an area of town that was not the greatest. Fortunately, though in order to get to our side of the house we had to go through a gated courtyard. That apartment had a lot of character and many windows. I am not a huge curtain person, but there were all these open windows and no blinds. We knew we had to do something. We also knew that we would only be living in that apartment for only a few months so were were not going to run out and spend a lot of money to deal with the situation. Therefore, we went to the fabric store and we bought yards of a light cotton fabric that we thumb tacked to the top of the window and I put a fake hem at the bottom using an iron and heat adhesive. The theory behind my idea made sense. However in practice was a different story. I was so proud of myself. I had worked all day on my curtain masterpieces only to find out that the picture window ones

A few years ago Dan, the girls, and I were running errands and we were on the other side of town. We were all getting tired. I’d hit rock bottom on the snacks for the kids, so we were all hungry. As we neared the end of the list of things we had to do, we found ourselves in a Wal-Mart. Out of frustration Dan and I agreed we’d buy a fried chicken meal from the deli and take it home. That way I didn’t have to cook, and everyone would be happy. I approached the counter, and smiled at the girl. The see through case of fried chicken seemed tempting. There were ample amounts in the warmer. I waited my turn as my kids bickered as a result of their fatigue. I was trying to be as gracious as I could as I waited. She proceeded to be talking to someone in Spanish and wouldn’t make eye contact with me. As the seconds ticked off what seemed to be way to long I stood there. Finally in stilted English she asked me what we would like. “We want the family chicken meal.” I responded. I t

Yesterday I joined one of many groups taking a stand against abortion on a yearly event that is now beginning to sweep our nation called Stand4Life. In had been a really long time since I had done something of this nature. While in High School I had joined up with a traveling ministry called Teens 4 Life. It was a training ground for me on this issue. But as I’d graduated and had my own children this was the first time I’d done something like this since. Yesterday I stood in front of an abortion clinic in Orlando, FL prayed and wept with many others. Stand4Life is not a protest, but a declaration of love. It’s a stand to say “We love those babies that are being murdered. We love those people who are in a place thinking they have no other hope. Let us pray for you.“ There was a particular man I watched leave the clinic and wait for his wife. Later I learned, because I’d heard one of the workers say, that He and his wife had decided to go ahead and kill their baby because “

Back in 2005, Dan and I got an idea for a drama about the Great Throne Judgment. As much as I write, it is a real rarity that he and I team up like that. However, I have noticed in any project that the creative juices start pumping and we work together there is just more of an anointing to it. While we wrote that particular drama the entire time we were brainstorming I kept thinking, “This is going to be a lot of work coming together. I don’t know how to do that? How will this work?” Dan and I kept brainstorming. What resulted was a decent script, and we both tried to put our doubts aside and go forward with the piece. That skit sat on the back burner for a couple of years. It just wasn’t the right time to do it and we held onto it. A couple of years ago we finally were able to dust it off the shelf. When it was God’s time for it, it all worked out. The special effects came together. One person had a contact with someone who had this, and someone else could help us with t

My girls have been bugging us for quite sometime about letting them camp out. My philosophy on camping is similar to my dad’s. “Camping is a Holiday Inn without room service.” Don’t get me wrong, if I had to backpack through the jungle because God told me to, I see that as different. It has a purpose; I don’t find camping a recreation that I enjoy. So we finally decided since we don’t own a tent, and we have a spare twin mattress in the shed that if the kids wanted to sleep outside we could make that bed up in the shed in the backyard. The kids were excited. Dan decided that if they were sleeping in the shed then we should put the air mattress on the patio just so we could hear them in case they needed something in the night. The issue arose when we discovered our flashlight was faulty and our youngest felt that she needed to check on us every few minutes. Sometimes the flashlight would work and sometimes it wouldn’t. She kept getting scared. I kept telling her, “God hadn’t gi