Anna M. Aquino

            Anyone who has ever parented more than one child has to understand the idea of feeling like a continual referee between the children.  My super fabulous awesome girls are no different.  Before having my second daughter I thought that the sibling issues wouldn’t start until they reached a certain age, but that wasn’t the case.  I think they started in our home the moment we brought our second child home from the hospital.  Honestly I can’t say it’s all one or the other.  The two of them bounce off of each other.             Perhaps the two of them have gotten worse over the last few months, or perhaps it’s just the fact that its summer vacation and I need to encourage them to take these two months to learn a foreign language, train for a marathon, or swim the English Channel.  However, recently the two of them have been at each oth...

            I wrote in my last blog about how I have really been enjoying learning archery and today I have another thought along the lines of a bow and arrow.              In order for arrows to be launched forward they have to be pulled backwards.  They have to be pulled in what seems to be opposite of where it looks like they should be heading.  They have to strain to go to what seems to the wrong way before they can be launched into being the right way.             In Proverbs 127:5 Children are compared to being arrows.  If you consider this along with Isaiah 55:11 where words are being sent from God and not returning to Him void but accomplishing what He sent, we as people are also arrows in the hand of God.  We are His children.  He sent us here for purpose and destiny.  We ...

            Greetings from Ohio,             It’s been an interesting week in our new surroundings:  We’re excited to be finally attending Faith Life Church, My children have been hanging out with family and in my parents pool,  I think they are developing fish gills, I’ve learned that most of my household stuff fits in a garage, and that sometimes we all need some downtime to hear the voice of God for the next season.             Since moving, I have discovered a love of archery.  My parents have had a target range for guns set up in their back yard.  I have always been a supporter of the 2 nd Amendment but have never loved shooting a lot.  I have recently found out I really like the bow and arrow.  I’m not sure how long or far I’ll take this, but I’ve already told Dan when we move cl...

            As most of you know, my family and I have had a very intense and adventurous few days.  Moving across the country will do that.  My girls were already in Ohio.  My husband, dog and I left Orlando in the rain.  Only a few hours into our trip an oil light came on with a wrench.  My husband (who was rockin’ the U-Haul and drove the whole way) felt that the beast of a vehicle was pulling to the right, so we pulled off to the side of the road on I-75.   While semi’s sped past us rocking the cab of the U-Haul, and my dog started to freak out, I called the road side assistance just to make sure it was ok.  The first call got disconnected.  The second time I spoke with them the woman on the other end of the phone started to panic.  She told me to hang up and call 911.  So I did.  911 just got annoyed with me for calling them even after I tried to explain to them th...

This weekend was filled with a myriad of emotions and tears.  While we’ve known for a really long time we’d be leaving Central Florida, sometimes knowing it was going to happen doesn’t always make it any easier.  Don’t get me wrong; I have NO DOUBT that moving to Ohio is where God wants us.  But sometimes it’s just so hard to say good-bye.  I wrote in a book once (still unpublished), I made the comparison to people in your life with a patchwork quilt.  I wrote that people, that you cross paths with in your life, make up the patchwork quilt of you.  Some people give you their piece to put in the quilt and it might be bigger than what you wanted, or their piece might be smaller.  Some people are that warm fuzzy piece you want to snuggle with, and others are that very scratchy irritable section that always makes you annoyed.  However the quilt is yours.   You leave fabric pieces for people in your lives, and they leave their piec...

            My youngest daughter has a bad habit she’s been trying to break.  It’s nothing major, but it’s been an ongoing thing.  This morning we were discussing this on the way to school.             “Mommy, I am trying.”  She responded at my questions.             “I know you are baby, but there is a difference between trying and doing.”  I began to search for the right words to say here.  We all have things we need to break as habits and she is only 8 years old.  Suddenly a story from the Bible popped into my mind.  “There is a story in the Bible about one man who God told him to do something and the man told God he’d do it and then he didn’t.  Then there is a story where God told another man to do it, and while the other man told God no, eventually he did it.  Which ...

It is true that Wal-Mart and I have a love hate relationship.  My husband questions why I still frequent their stores, or at very least the one that has irritated me the most.  I’ll admit he may have a point.  However every time I justify the issues away with “the location is convenient” and “there prices really are cheaper”. I realize more and more I’m paying for the convenience with seconds wasted from my life.  Our crazy Wal-Mart stories vary in content:  There was the time the deli worker refused to sell me fried chicken even though the cases were full of it, the time I got yelled at for not speaking Spanish by a cashier, the time the pharmacy gave my daughter the wrong prescription (I still won’t use their pharmacy), There was the time they refused to honor my coupons and semi mocked me in Spanish, or more recently they refused to sell me an ink cartridge when it was open and so I went back into the store and the same one was back on the shelf.  ...