Anna M. Aquino

  If you have read my blogs for a while now, you know that I take some time off when I travel in the summer and also around the holidays.   This year is no different.   My family and will be having some much needed time with family and friends in the North.   My prayer is that God rejuvenates and speaks to us in the ways of direction as only He can.   We pray that we are used by God to touch those we come in contact.   Usually I write the New Year blog right at the first of the year, but this year will be a little different.   I wanted to write it now, and I hope it is encouraging to many who read it.   Last year I prophesied that 2013 would be a year what was unseen would become seen.   I certainly saw that happening in various arenas.   From the IRS scandal, to various other controversies what was already being done was brought to the surface.   We saw this happen in our own lives too in several avenues.   Persona...

  My kids love to steal my tablet to play games; making them well versed in Angry Birds, Santa Rider, and Grandma Run.   Now that we’re sharing one car they tend to play a few games while waiting for Dan to get off work, once their homework is done of course.   My youngest daughter is one of the most curious kids I have ever been around.   The phrase, “Mommy has no idea about that, why don’t we go home and Google it?” gets used a lot.   She’s got such a sweet easy going personality, but every once in a while she’ll say some of the most profound things and then just go back to being the same fun loving kid.   She switches in seconds and honestly one can never be sure what will come out of her mouth.   Last week while she was playing a game, she suddenly stopped and in all seriousness asked me, “Mom how many lives do we get?”   It took me a few moments to understand what she was asking me.   I was busy trying to help my oldest with ...

  This afternoon I went to the meeting with the principal and the teacher regarding the incident I spoke about this morning in this blog.   While the teacher’s definition (as spoken in front of his boss and the principal) of what went on and was said in his classroom certainly deferred from what I was told by my daughter, it was good to hear both sides of the story.   Of course I do believe that the teacher backpedaled a bit, and I believe my child.   I am choosing to let this situation go.   At this point I will not be going to the media.   I felt that I needed to take a stand for Freedom of Speech.   In my own corner of the world, I believe I did.   However I won't hesitate to do cause a stink again if I feel this situation continues to happen. Thank you to all who prayed with me during this drama.   Smiles!

  We live in an America where it seems more and more our freedoms and the Constitution continues to be trampled upon.   It’s shocking to me that it’s gone beyond just religious prosecution, but it’s violating the ideals that America was founded.   While I live in a small part of the US, I have seen things swing more and more towards a Socialistic or Communistic society.   We are sadly leaving our free democratic nation aside and moving to ideologies that is not how this nation is founded.   In short I believe our forefathers are “rolling in their graves.”   The United States was founded in order to give people a nation to have the freedoms to worship and be who they felt their Creator called them to be.   It wasn’t freedom from all religion, but freedom from a set religion being forced down ones throat from a government. My children have gone to a public charter school for the last 8 years.   For the most part, I have loved that sch...

  I purchased Mojo, our cute longhaired mini doxie dog, two ball toys some time ago but just gave them to him this weekend.   If I do buy him a dog toy and scan down the aisle.   My criteria are: that it can’t have a squeaker to drive me bonkers in the middle of the night, and I look for how it will be torn apart.   It’s because of that I typically make toys for him anymore out of worn out jeans.   Mojo was so beyond excited to get his new toys. He pranced and he played. The balls had come in a two pack and perhaps I should have only given him one at first.   Because his biggest problem was deciding which one he wanted.   He’d take the orange one, and then the blue.   I’d throw one of them and he’d try to fit both of them in his mouth.   I took one in each hand and would give him the one, only to see him change his mind.   He wanted the orange, no the blue, no the orange, no the blue.   This went on and on.   It was...

My family sat around and played UNO together a few nights ago.   Friends of us have taught us a new spin on the rules; if a plus something card is put on the pile then the next person can defer their picking up those cards if they have the same plus number card then the next person has to pick up the total amount.   So to explain that if I threw down a +4 card, and the next person threw down a +4 then the third person had to pick up 8 cards.   Whether these are actual rules or made up rules it certain amounts for some fun card games.   However the other night the +4’s kept being laid down until my youngest daughter found herself stiffed to pick up 16 cards.   Laughter, hoots, and cries could have probably been heard from several houses away.   She cried, “That’s it I quit!” She wanted to quit.   She decided it looked hopeless.   But, I wouldn’t let her quit.   “No, you’ll finish this game.”   So we finished the game, and she...

Many years ago when we got my car we walked out nothing short of a classic miracle story of a divine plan and some appearing to be crazy circumstances.   Dan and I had been in need of a vehicle.   We’d planted some seed toward it.   I happened to be visiting my parents in Ohio for a wedding, and got in touch with a friend of the family who is employed by a dealership and has always gotten us great deals on cars.   Long story short though I had plans to fly back to FL, after spending time on the phone with Dan and the family friend (sometimes at the same time) we ended up purchasing this vehicle at the same amount we’d sown seed for over the dealer price.   However they’d needed Dan's signature for the car loan, so my mother, oldest daughter, and myself were permitted to take it on a really “long test drive” to Florida.   So my mother could get Dan’s signature on the paperwork, and fly back to Ohio.   Dan bought the car sight unseen.   Through a...

  For my American readers this week marks Thanksgiving; for my Canadian ones sorry I know it was in October and for the other ones around the world humor me for a moment.   I’m an American girl (grin).   In the US, Thanksgiving kicks off a month of holiday fun and parties that leads into CHRISTmas (oh yes, I said it, grin) into the New Year.   This means a month of twinkling lights, Church specials, indulging a tad too much, and a load of gatherings that most likely will at least make you want to smack a few people once or twice (I always say family can bring out the best and worst in people).   I will only be writing one blog this week.   Enjoy your Thanksgiving.   However,   I must add a couple disclaimers here before I proceed in this blog: 1)   No we don’t celebrate Santa Clause in my house (ie the picture) it’s a personal choice and I really don’t need a dozen emails disagreeing with this picture that was very fitting to this topic...

I’m going to write a little bit off the cuff today.   This is about some things I’ve been feeling in my family’s lives as well as the season we are in the body of Christ.   Honestly Dan and I have faced some of the most intense seasons I’ve ever faced in ministry and life to date.   It wasn’t just about the move from our old home.   There are a lot of long awaited transitions happening that I’ll talk about in the coming days.   It’s been a season where God has spoken some very specific things to our heart and the pieces have yet come together.   I’ll admit my attitude hasn’t been the greatest about this pace that has felt like a skipping record stuck on repeat.   “Come on God,” I’ve wanted to yell, “I know you see me.   I know you have better plans, so let’s get this party started.   I want to run!” I know I’m not alone in this.   There are many in the body of Christ in similar situations.   God has spoken some things, ...

Over eight years ago when my husband and I purchased a house closer to his work and our church, right away I dubbed it the ‘Pink House’.   I had never been a huge fan of pink but the lady who had the home before us certainly was.   It had brand new carpet that was a Pepto pink, countertops all pink, vertical blinds pink, the outside had pink accents, and even the tile had pink wisps next to the white.   As a joke once we bought it we began ‘Operation Depinking’.   Over the years we’d managed to either work with the pink, or change a lot of it.   We put a lot of work into that house.   It’s odd how homes can almost become like members of the family.   The pink grew on me. For a whole list of reasons, that at the moment I’m not going to publicly go into, Dan and I had felt we needed to sell the pink house.   Simply put the time had come to move forward into a new season of our lives, and while we loved our home, in order to go to the next seas...

  A few days ago our dog Mojo came in from the outside while we were finishing dinner. Right away something smelled off.   It smelled rank.   Right away the Northern Woods Girl came out of me and I wondered how did this dog get around a skunk?   I found myself beginning to wonder if we had enough tomato juice for a skunk smell to clean him up.   We opted by started to give him a bath.   The smell was atrocious and my eyes almost began to water as I reached down to his collar to take it off.   As I did, my finger gooed in what I knew right away was poop.   I think Mojo had rolled in it, got it wedged in his collar, and now permeated the odor all through my house.   In the end he had to be scrubbed at least three times, all my surfaces cleaned, and I’m still not sure he was 100% clean. People in general can be like this in life.   You know something doesn’t seem quite right with them.   You try to help them out by helpi...

Many of you have heard me tell the story time and time again how 13 years ago today, Dan and I left my parents driveway in Ohio to head to Florida.   Dan and I had been living in Pittsburgh, PA for him to finish out his 2 nd AA degree.   We were seeking the Lord as to where He wanted us to move.   I knew it wasn’t just for a job, but for the right church.   It was for God to put Dan and I  to be under a ministry to help us grow up in the things of God and to prepare us for what He had for us in ministry.   While driving home from work one day in the Pittsburgh hills I heard the Lord say to me, “You’re going to Orlando and Dan is going to work at ***** company.”   I remember going home to Dan and telling him this.   I remember his response, “That would be great but ***** company hasn’t hired me yet.”   So we went on our quest to continue to try to figure out what God was doing and what he wanted.   Several job possibilities came and...

I’ve mentioned before about my first car.   It was a 1979 Cutlass Oldsmobile.   We once fit nine people in it.   I do believe the periscope attachment came with a separate kit that I never received (insert sarcasm here).   All in all it was the perfect car to learn how to drive in.   I think I had a dent in it (some minor and some not so much) for every week I drove those few years I had the car.   Rocko (Its name) was a car of first car stories, which live in infamy within my family lore. This story is one that I will probably never live down, though I’ve tried.   I’m guessing I’d only been driving about a year.   My parents were super awesome to bless me with the car, and every time I turned around it seemed that someone was checking the oil.   I didn’t know how to check oil, so I just assumed that all would be fine.   Until that fateful day when I drove the tank back from town and I saw smoke coming out of the engine, it nev...