Anna M. Aquino

            Yes, it is true.  I went apple picking.  I suppose too many this is a triumph that doesn’t seem to blog worthy.  I suppose too many it’s not.             Probably about five or six years ago I had the biggest desire to go apple picking.  We were living in Florida the land of the hot and hotter and it wasn’t until this desire hit, did I realize you can’t go apple picking in Florida.  Shocking I know, but I never realized that apples need the freeze to grow and there are no apple orchards that I could find in any kind of drive from the Orlando/Kissimmee area.  I know this seems so minor, but it totally bummed me out.  I even joked on Twitter about four years ago that I was going to move back to Ohio, get a house with apple trees and sell jars of apple sauce with every book I ever sold.  Then I found some Ohio business orga...

            This weekend my family and I went to help some very dear friends of ours at their alpaca/chicken farm.  I think it was a great learning experience for all, and of course we learned there wasn’t anything some good soap and water can’t clean off.  For my primarily raised in city kids, there was some great lessons here.              Toward the end of our visit my friends decided to get one of their alpacas away from the herd so my children could feel their fur.  It was a great idea.  My kids wanted to do this.  However no one realized how much of a challenge this would be for all of us.  I hadn’t realized before this how much alpaca’s are herd animals.  They don’t like to get separated from the others.   The others do not like one to get separated from them. I’m not sure if I will ever run with the bulls in Spain,...

            Dan and I both grew up in lands of changing seasons.  However we lived in FL for 13.5 years where the only seasons they have is “hot and hotter”.  When my oldest daughter was about three we decided we wanted to give her the experience of fall.  I tore up a bunch of magazines and newspapers in the living room and we let her attempt to pile them up and play with them.  I know the experience didn’t come close it was my futile attempt.              Now that we have moved back to the land of four seasons, my children and dog have been experiencing fall with gusto.  We recently had to do some raking of the leaves to have a leaf fight for the first time ever.  As much as Dan and I tried to replicate the experience for our children when we tore up the newspapers and magazines it really was no comparison.  We all had fun.  A...

            I took this picture while we were in Indy.  It’s the top section of the Scottish Cathedral and just found the picture kind of comical. I get that the church is trying to keep bird poo off their doors, and I get that they don’t want birds to hang out there.  Too many people in the world this is exactly what churches look like to them.  They won’t set foot in a church because they see people as abrasive people, or ones that would judge them if they knew the truth behind their smiles.              I recently started to be on a Greeters ‘Dream Team’ at our church. I firmly believe in needing to contribute to the church you’re in, and it was something I could do as we are still living so far from the church. As I thought about it, I thought about this picture.  How would I want to be treated if I just started to come to church and don’t kno...

            I have never been a lover of cold weather.  I can remember that when I lived in the north going out to scrape my car windows muttering “Dear God Please send me somewhere warm!”  Well.  He did.  I lived in Florida for over 13 years.  For over 13 years I experienced the seasons of “hot and hotter”.   While Florida weather isn’t ideal, flip flops are a clothing “must have” year round.  I hardly ever wore socks.  For 13.5 years I visited colder weather fondly at Christmas time, and then returned to climates where their idea of winter weather meant you might have to throw on a sweatshirt.  While I always missed the seasons I NEVER missed the cold.              My family and I moved to Ohio this year in June.  We all knew this was God’s doing. While I knew the winter months would be arriving, I tried very...

I wanted to take a moment in today’s blog to again reiterate how much I love the Holy Spirit.  When we were in Indy, I was to have one more day while Dan was working.  I honestly had no idea where I should go.  I’d done what I wanted to do, and was just being indecisive about what else to do.  I couldn’t, nor did I want to, stay in the hotel the rest of that last day.  Early that last morning as I was waking up I felt as if the Holy Spirit hit me upside the head and dropped into my spirit that I needed to go to this Scottish Cathedral downtown.               I was sure there had to be some divine reason for me to go to this Cathedral.  Maybe I’d get to talk with some old school Scottish priest, or maybe have a divine moment of speaking into someone’s life, but for whatever the reason I just knew I had to go there.            ...