Anna M. Aquino

This weekend (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday) I had the awesome privilege to set in a conference at our church and listen to Dr. Saddiki teach. This conference was life changing. I feel like I have been a sponge trying to soak all this revelation in. If you know me, I have no problem shamelessly promoting people that I think are awesome. If you’ve never heard of this mighty man of God go check out his website at http://www.wisdomministries.org/ I confess until about a month ago when I just happen to catch him on the TV show Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural I had never heard of him. But God is doing awesome things through his life and ministry and I recommend the Jesus in him. One of the many things that really stuck out in these days of teaching that I want to mention is the revelation he brought forth on: Mark 11:23 (NIV) “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen...

Posing for the camera? I’ve mentioned before about my love of the Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio. I was thinking about the other day how we used to go up there at least once a summer. When my friends and I were older we would frequent the Magnum ride. At the time it held many a world record for longest and highest coaster around. If you’re a coaster lover it is a coaster of coasters. I’m sure it’s records aren’t still holding but it is an awesome ride. I remember how it was probably one of the first ones that had the cameras in the ride that would take your picture during it. I know now that concept is pretty standard, but then it wasn’t. My friends and I would figure out where the cameras were so while we were on the ride we’d pose for the camera. We’d rush down to the bottom to see our pictures on the screen. I remember seeing some funny pictures of all of us. We never bought them but had fun posing for the camera. The thing is, we were so busy posing that,...

When I was a kid growing up in Central Ohio, I can remember this ride. I don’t know if it was at Cedar Point (which I have to say is one of the best amusement parks ever) or if it was at a carnival. I’m thinking it was at Cedar Point. Anyway this particular ride was in a circle. You got on the ride and everyone put their backs to the circle facing inwards. As the ride would start it would spin really fast. I remember thinking I would hurl at one point. It would raise you up while it spun. Eventually as you keep spinning the floor drops out. Because you’re spinning so fast your body is stuck to the back of the circle and you don’t move. You become a living science experiment on inertia and gravity. I was thinking about this ride the other day thinking about how if it wasn’t spinning very fast before the floor fell out what would happen? You’d fall to the ground. It reminds me of a tribal African professor that I had in college telling the story of when he first went on an amusement ...

On Friday, I had some events happen that I thought I'd share. I finished my 14th book! It was a bit of a stretch for me, and it's still in rough draft form, but I finished the draft. I still need to go back and proofread. I'd like to add about another 4,ooo words but I got the draft done. I have about another 6 books roaming in my head right now. I can be a real workaholic if I let myself. Then, about an hour later, I went to check my mailbox. The timing couldn't have been worse. Sitting in my box was a turndown from a publishing house on my 13th book. I had been waiting to hear from them on this since June. (many of you are thinking I thought she had a publisher? I do, for my non-fiction. However I'm believing God for a fiction publisher. Books are published on an individual contract basis...) The turndown was not because these people didn't lik me. It wasn't because they disliked the manuscript. However, it was because the book didn't fit into the spec...

Last weekend I found myselfat my girls' school doing volunteer hours. Their school requires that every family put in a set amount of hours every year so that their children will get a spot for the next academic year. In the years we've had kids at the school, I have done various things for my parenting hours like: weeding outside, gone to PTO meetings, colored at home, and guest taught, etc. Saturday after spending two hours wedding in the front I was led to the Media Room. I was only explained my next job would be one of organization. Really if it got me out from the outside and into the air conditioning, I didn't care what I would be doing. Boxes waited for me. Hidden and shoved in what seemed to be every nook and cranny of the room were boxes and boxes of cords, wires, cables, computer mice, and telephone jacks that had been thrown together for years. They were a tangled mangled crazy mess. Every time I thought, There could be no other boxes full of them, I found more. T...

When I was in college I worked in the set construction department at The Ohio State University. There was a particular student that had liked me. I knew he did. He ws a nice guy, but I was just coming out of a very complicated relationship, and for a lot of reasons I knew this man wouldn't be a good idea for me to date. Inevitably the day happened when he and I were talking while we were cleaning our paint brushes from fauz wood graining the base boards for an upcoming set. He smiled and looked back at me. He paused in reflection and in the moment as he asked me out, someone on the other side of the shop started to use the table saw. I'll admit I lied. "What? I can't hear you!" I responded. Soon the table saw stopped. I knew what he'd asked me, and I felt bad for lying. I was trying to come up with a reasonable excuse in my head for when he repeated the invite, but he never asked again. Consequently I met Dan a few weeks later but that's another story. I w...

It is quite concerning if you start watching some of the recent documentaries that has been done about our food supply. Fillers and high gructose corn syrup is being put into our foods at an alarming rate. High fructose corn syrup is a sweetener that has been known to make you gain more weight, and raise triglyceride levels that can lead to a higher risk of a heart attack. Really, it is just a sweetener and has no nutritional value what so ever. It fills you up so you do not desire the nutrients. On the surface, it might make something taste good but on the inside, the value is questionable. Many in the kingdom can begin to be like 'High Fructose Corn Syrup Christians' if their not careful. Sure, they might look good. They might play the role of a Christian on Sundays, but deep down there is no real depth to them. There is no real value to the kingdom because it's all surface. It's like the fillers in processed meat. It just fills you up, and isn't the real thing. J...

Several months ago I was having a moment. I was sad because some changes were happening in out lives: we had some friends move, I was getting frustrated and annoyed at some different events, and I'll confess my attitude wasn't the greatest. I was so busy focusing on my own drama that I couldn't see past the wall of self-pity that I was building around me. I know I'm not the only person that has had these moments. I am just being honest. So I had a random epiphany moment where I realized I should start leaving comments on other people's facebook pages. I know my solution sounds simple but as I began to do that, I got so excited. I looked at my page and my list of friends and thought who else can I compliment? Doing that helped me knock down my wall of self-pity and made me start to look at those around me. Most of those individuals I did that to responded in such a way where I made their day. They had really needed to hear a kind word in that moment, and my little on...