Closets and gumbo

So, I'm standing in a closet.  That's where the internet hook up is...it's kind of the furnace/stuff room.  Just picture a few cobwebs, one lightbulb, wires and gizmos everywhere.  Last Saturday was a birthday celebration for John and I.  We went to Charleston, went down to the river, had dinner with two other WV crews.   We wore sombreros at the restaurant and our teams made us a cake.  It was a good day.  This week...cleaning, prep work, going door to door to recruit kids from the community to come to Kids Club, getting tested for TB because I'm the lead volunteer for the nursing home (I don't have it), finally opening up a bit more to my team...which is a struggle sometimes.  It is a goal of mine tho, I wrote it on a notecard before we left training.  Don't let there be walls.  I hide behind those sometimes.  Surprise.  Mm...birthday, went out to ice cream after dinner, my team got me presents.  I wasn't expecting that...I've known them three weeks and we celebrated on Saturday!  They're a blessing tho.  We have a pretty solid team.  We made a video about our guidelines for the week to show the youth groups.  Every scene has Mark or Haley doing something wrong, then I come out and tackle them in all my beastly strength and wonder.  They wanted to put a nickname in the credits for me, and decided on Duchess.  Where that came from, I don't know.   Wasn't a fan, but it's growing on me after this train of thought - Thursday I did dishes for at least five hours, mind you, I had to heat water on the stove constantly because we don't have hot tap water.  Towards the end of this, I was feeling a lot like Cinderalla...who marries a prince, becomes queen, which is kinda like a Duchess.  So, hopefully I will learn to accept this - the kids are probably going to call me that once they see it on the video.  Why not Sherlock or Treehugger I say?  Geez.  Anyhoo, Thursday night, went to dinner at Miss Laudie's.  Homemade chicken and dumplings and then a Bible study with about 12 other people from her church.  Then there's 'pickin' where we play bluegrass, folk songs and hymns til whenever.  Those folks stay up late!  Friday afternoon my team went to a local restaurant.  Those people are real friendly!  I asked what was in the chicken gumbo soup...and got the answer three times:  gumbo.  Our waitress was tickled.  I didn't think it was that funny, but I laughed at how hilarious she thought it was. Lately I've felt like I'm more admiring what Jesus calls us to do than Jesus himself, but this morning, I was thinking about it.  Jesus calls us to do what he calls us to do because of who he is, his character, and admiring that seems like it just might be admiring the One who would have us live that life.  So.  That's my life soup, coming from a disorganized closet!