living on a prayer

so, it's been a while since i posted. i wonder if the number of posts relates to my mood. i've been down of late and although  we have been busy with this and that i haven't had the motivation to blog about it, mostly because come evening time i'm tired.

the difference now? well, we're on holiday, in Florida! i never in a million years would have dreamed of us holidaying anywhere quite so warm and lovely and certainly not seeing our friends who moved here last August. we were resigned to not seeing them for the next three years or until they returned to England for a visit. For anyone who reads regularly or who knows us, it will also be a surprise as we are a frugal living family, mostly living on a prayer, and the cost of any holiday anywhere is a serious consideration for us.

God spent most of 2012 teaching me lessons about grace, mostly my gracious attitude towards others, namely my children (but that's a whole other story) and the year ended with a massive gracious gift to  me and my family in the form of plane tickets to Florida to see our friends. the gift came from a mutual friend and at first i found it really hard to accept the gift. there was/is no way we can ever repay him in anyway and it is a huge gift but after much prayer and consideration we saw it for the gracious gift that it was and how really it blesses three families all at once (at least we hope it's a blessing to our friends whom we are visiting!)

And so, here we are, on a really big adventure. 2 families, 4 adults, 6 children all residing together in a three bed apartment in Florida for ten days. Today we have been to see alligators and turtles and osprey and a talking parrot named Mike and spent the afternoon swimming. It's hot, which bean is struggling with, and we have been up since 4 am but i thought that was pretty good going. We are really enjoying being with our friends (I'm so excited i could burst) and looking forward to the next ten days together.

i guess photos will have to follow when we return home but picture us smiling, all in shorts and t-shirts in a hot sunny place with palm trees everywhere...and a parrot named Mike :)