Anna M. Aquino

***Stay tuned after the blog for some announcements! :-) Last Saturday after I was on the radio 91.5 FM with Tom Jones out Cocoa, FL (Those are available for download go to http://ondemand.wmiefm.com/?od=main and search by dates, I was on air May 26th, and April 28th) Dan and I decided to drive on to have a family day at the beach in Cocoa Beach. You would think that since we live in FL that we would travel to the beach often, but we don’t and the afternoon was a treat for my family. I found myself in the waves along with the girls. The salt water was splashing and burning our eyes, and stinging our throats. We were having a lot of fun dancing and jumping in the waves. As I watched my youngest struggle to get back up after a wave had knocked her down, I heard her shriek, “Mom! My bathing suit is falling off!” I tried not to laugh. The beach was crowded and that is mortifying no matter what your age, “Put it back on!” With a few seconds of struggling under the water and...

Last week I was making my lunch, and I grabbed what I thought was a hardboiled egg. I suppose this is when I add that after I had hardboiled half the carton of eggs Dan had asked me how he was supposed to tell them apart, and I had said, “Duh, the hardboiled ones are on this side of the carton, and most of them have a ‘B’ on them." To which I know he was trying to question my judgment because he was right you couldn’t really tell them apart but I was the one that got burnt on this point. So here I was last week, grabbing an egg to go with my lunch and I was completely unsuspecting that the egg wasn’t cooked, and it was perhaps if wisdom and observation had taken a back seat in my head. I mean really, they all looked just alike. Perhaps if I had been more observant I would have found something different about them, but from the outside I couldn’t tell the difference. It was as if I was stuck on automatic pilot as I cracked that egg over my cutting board. But in an instan...

I make a lot of popcorn in our house. After doing away with making it in the microwave, we’ve finally opted for me to make it in a pan over the stove. I have discovered it is a delicate art making it this way. First, you must keep the lid on until it’s done popping. I have found exploded bits of popcorn in the most unusual places in my kitchen. You also have to be very careful not to wait too long because if you do then the popcorn just ends up burning, and that smell goes everywhere. It’s an intricate balance of me learning how to listen for the popcorn to be just at the right place of cooking to take it off and let it finish. It’s a fine art when to decide to take that lid off, but in the end it’s something the whole family can enjoy. We’ve all laughed a few times at my mistakes: finding humor in the burnt ones, and the times popcorn came out and hit me in the head. As I thought about all of this the other day, I got to thinking how much out lives and our destinies ...

My dad is one of the toughest men I have ever been around in the natural. He was a grunt soldier in Vietnam, and survived an entire tour spending 99% of that time in the bush. To put that in the perspective of statistics, the life expectancy of a grunt soldier in Vietnam was two weeks. Daddy survived thirteen months at the height of the war. Which I will readily credit, was both: the hand of God on his life, and my daddy’s refusal to quit. It is no wonder that while growing up to me, he was a larger than life character. He’s since survived all sorts of health issues, most likely caused by Agent Orange. In short my daddy is a survivor. He had lived through ordeals that most would give up in. He has fought to stay alive in the midst of horrible trauma. He has always said to me, “You have two choices in life: You can either lie down and die, or get up and keep fighting.” I get a little annoyed when I hear people start to whine and complain ...

I have a confession to make. I’ve taken to playing the card game of solitaire on my tablet. It’s not that I’m addicted to it, or can’t live without it, but it’s just something I’ve gotten in the habit of doing to unwind a bit. Not that there is anything wrong with that. However playing on the tablet just makes cheating so easy sometimes. I confess I’ll see what is under the cards before I make a permanent decision and that back button is just way too tempting. If I’m being honest with myself pushing that back button is cheating me out of knowing if I can win fair and square or not. In essence when I get all when I win I’m kind of lying to myself because I cheated. I’ll probably keep doing this. At least I’m honest about lying to myself. Lying to myself about a card game may be one thing, but the kind of lying we’ve all done to ourselves is something totally different. 1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us We all like to put...

My girls had a week when they were doing standardized testing, and my six-year-old was sick the last day of testing. I was assured that she would be able to take a makeup test and all would be well if I kept her home. So she went into school the next day, and had the makeup test. She didn’t say anything to me about what happened because she had to get sent home from school again because she still wasn’t feeling well. However the next day we were sitting at the table as a family and all of a sudden she said, “Mommy, they told me they were giving me a makeup test, but there was no makeup there?” At first I didn’t understand what she was getting at, and then slowly I started laughing, “Did you think they’d have blush and lip-gloss?” “Yes,” Her sincerity was precious and she didn’t think too kindly of me laughing so hard at this conversation. You know, so often we as Children of the Lord can do the same thing with God. We can think He meant one thing, and then want to be disapp...

For those of you who read my blogs regularly you’ll remember the story about the “Divine Happenings in a Small Christian Bookstore” that I posted on April 2nd. You can view all of those online too at www.annamaquino.blogspot.com Long story short I had been looking for a church that would let me come in and speak in Miami since I already had plans to be in the area. Up until that point I hadn’t found anyone, and then a precious bunch of people came into a book signing of mine in St. Petersburg. A God connection resulted, and it was an honor to get to speak at Nation of Life International Ministries in Miami this past Sunday. The message that was taught was exactly what Dan and I have been going through, and the whole thing is really a divine connection. I love it when God does these types of things. Traveling with small children in tow can be a bit of a challenge. My oldest was fine, but my youngest, who will soon be turning six, was just a tad out of her element. My frien...

I confess I’m still waking up! We had an awesome weekend in Miami, and I will talk more about it in my next blog. It was a divine appointment and God is soooo good! I had set today’s blog aside to talk about a math assignment my oldest daughter came home with last week…gone really wrong. My oldest daughter briefly mentioned this project the beginning of the week. She told me she had three models to make out of construction paper and I said, “Do we have enough? What are these models? Can we do anything about them now?” I turned into the typical questioning mom. “It’ll be okay mom. It’s fine.” Now I want to interject here my oldest is awesome. She hardly ever procrastinates on work, and is a very diligent student. So even though I had a feeling something was up with this project I ignored my inner warnings. Wednesday night rolls around and I had every intention of going to church. This project is now due on Thursday, and I can hear my oldest getting frustrated and ma...

Back when cordless phones were officially out on the market and in most American homes, I remember being just at the age where the phone was a BIG deal. I was waiting on an important phone call. I honestly don’t remember what the phone call was about, but I do remember who was calling. I was in Middle School and the hours spent on the phone were a normal part of my routine. However, I got bored waiting. Somewhere in my head I justified to myself that I would jump on my sister’s moped and ride around the yard with the phone in my hand, and thus would be able to hear the ring from the ‘all important phone call’. Needless to say a phone on a moped isn’t a good idea, and I did drop it. The back cover crashed on the concrete pavement and needless to say my parents were not happy with me. They fixed it with some handy electrical tape, however to this day whenever I talk on the phone and mention it to certain members of my family they always remind me that I shouldn’t take it on...