Anna M. Aquino

            It’s been a challenging winter for my ex-Florida family for a whole list of reasons.  My family has been through some major changes and snow is something none of us appreciate.  While we are exactly where God wants us to be the gray Ohio days and lack of flip flop weather has made us all a tad irritable. My own children have been caught in the “Mom, when can we go outside in shorts again” blues.             This afternoon as I was going throughout my day I heard a bird call, and something deep from my childhood triggered on the inside.  I knew that bird call (not even sure what type of bird it was), but I knew if I heard that call that spring was in the air. Inside of my head I started getting hugely excited!  “Spring is here!” I wanted to twirl around the room singing old fashioned Broadway musical show tunes.  I wanted to start a cho...

            Last week we almost lost our dog, Mojo.  I say almost because my youngest daughter kept insisting he needed our help.  The temperatures last week were in the single digits and she’d gone outside to play at my parents’ house.  Our dog and my parents’ dog were playing and while we kept an eye on her no one thought much about it.  Until she came in frantically crying that our dog was stuck under their pool.  Honestly that child has a penchant for the dramatic and everyone kept saying “He’ll come out.”  But he wasn’t coming out.  Soon we realized that Mojo really was stuck under the pool.  We’re pretty sure he was chasing a rabbit, and somehow managed to wedge himself between a pile of dirt and the deck.  For whatever reason he couldn’t get out the way he came in.  Due to the extreme cold conditions we also knew that time was not on our side.    Four adult...

            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...