Lesson From A Lamb

On our recent trip to California we had the chance to go out to my Grandparent's ranch. Two weeks earlier they had a set of twin lambs. It was fun to see the cute little lambs. I learned a great lesson from one of the lambs.

Sometimes lambs need to be bottle fed. For one reason or another the mother does not feed the lamb, so they need to be bottle fed. My grandparents are so good about doing their best to take care of these lambs that need a little extra care. It is not a quick trip out to the ranch to feed the lamb two or three times a day. With this recent batch of twins one lamb was fine, but the other needed to be bottle fed. My grandparents named this little lamb Bam Bam because all the other sheep pushed him around a lot. Each day my grandpa would go out the the ranch several times to try and feed Bam Bam. Sometimes the little lamb would drink the bottle, other times he would just drink a tiny bit, and other times he wouldn't drink anything at all. When we were out we all tried as hard as we could to get this little lamb to eat. A few times we actually got him to drink the whole bottle. Unfortunately, one morning when we went over to the ranch we found Bam Bam dead. The little bit of milk that he had been getting was not enough. (there were other reasons too) As sad as this experience was, I learned a great lesson.

The Savior is often compared to a shepherd who watches over his flock. He knows each of His little lambs by name and does all that He can to take care of them. How often does the Savior come to us, wanting to feed us? He knows our needs, He knows what will heal us. Sometimes we are willing to receive Him and what He would give us, other times we reject Him. Life gets crazy with work and everything else going on, but He comes faithfully every day to feed us.

This story of Bam Bam the lamb really made me think. Each day Bam Bam would come running up to my Grandpa, glad to see my Grandpa and be near him. But Bam Bam didn't always drink. It wasn't enough to just be near my Grandpa, Bam Bam needed to partake of what my Grandpa was bringing him.

Likewise it is not enough to just be near the Savior, to be glad to see Him in a sense. We need to partake of what He wants to share with us in order to survive. He wants us to feel of His love, to feel His spirit, to become like Him. The only way to do those things, is to actually partake of what He would bring to us.

It just really made me think.

How often does the Savior try to feed me?

Happy Feet

What would we do without our feet? Our feet take us to work, take us home, and take us on all of the adventures of our lives. Last Saturday Devin and I woke up and for the first time in a long time we looked at the schedule and there was nothing on it. We looked at each other and said, "Well, what should we do today?" It took us about 27 seconds to decide that we wanted to go hiking. We decided it would be fun to go up Mount Timp. as far as we could. So, being free to literally just take off, we packed a lunch and some snacks, Devin grabbed his camera and we were on our way.
But what would an adventure be without a little conflict. We got up to the little station where you pay to get into the park and "OH NO!" the dashing park ranger in his stunning hat had no way to accept a credit card. "BLAST!" That's what we get for living in a plastic world. We counted up the change in our car and it totaled about 63 cents. (If the park fee is $3 and Devin and Julie only have 63 cents, how much money do they owe the park ranger?) Luckily we must have looked pathetic enough the park ranger came up with a plan of his own to save the day. If we would drive clear to the American Fork side of the canyon, they could accept our credit card there. "YEAH!!!!" Thank heavens for the Park Rangers of the world, once again they saved us.
So we went hiking. It was so much fun to go out and enjoy the beauties all around us. We went up quite a ways before we decided it was time to turn around and head home. There were tons of butterflies out. Devin caught one at one point. We saw only one snake, which made me really happy. The best part was trying not to slide down the mountain on the huge patches of snow. I was wearing my Chacos because it was 100 degrees out. The snow was so COLD!!!! But as we went through small streams I had lots of fun trying to splash Devin who was just wearing normal shoes.
And that is our story for the week. Many people like to pamper their feet by getting a pedicure or soaking them in a hot bath, but no, those things are not for me! Just give me a good long hike, some dirt, snow, and water and my feet are happy.

Down on the Farm

Devin is from Idaho, and let's face it, he's a farm boy who loves technology. But if he has the chance to get down and dirty, he loves it. When we were out visiting my grandparents in California we had the chance to go out to their ranch. It is a toss up who enjoyed the time there more. We got to help my grandpa with his garden and other little things on the ranch. We both love it there so much. It is nice to be up to speed in the "real" world. But it is great to step back and just enjoy life too. Funny, how as little kids we absolutely hated weeding the garden. Now as adults it is some kind of treat. Someday we hope to have a yard with room for a garden. I don't think we will ever have sheep like my grandparents, but we would like to have a nice garden so our kids can learn to work really hard.

One Down...How Many To Go?

When we got married, Devin and I decided that we would set the goal to go to all the temples in the United States. We did good with this goal because we made time to go to the Orlando temple on our honeymoon. We decided that each time we go on vacation, if there was a temple close by, we would go there. Recently we went to California to visit my Grandparents. So we had the chance to go to the Sacramento temple. This was wonderful!!! I was able to go to the Open House last summer. It was wonderful to go to a smaller temple with Devin. We also had lots of fun taking pictures all around the temple. Maybe if enough of you bug Devin, he'll put all the pictures on our real web site. There are some really cool ones. Maybe we should pass them along to be used in a church magazine. We'll see.

Cleaning Up Is Fun To Do

Those of you who are up-to-day with the Baldwin family, know that Julie is switching schools. So, for the last several weeks, Devin and Julie have had the "ever-so-fun" experience of packing up 5 years worth of teaching "junk." Four years ago, after I switched schools the first time, my little brother Peter helped me put everything up in my classroom. As he was using his staple gun to put things up so they would never fall down, he said, "My goal for you is to have a husband by the time you need to take all this stuff down, so I don't have to do it. Or, my goal is to move far enough away that I can't help you." Well, it looks like both goals were achieved. I have a great husband who is excellent with a staple-remover and Peter now lives far enough away that I didn't even bother inviting him to the clean-up, pack-up festivities. We found out that you can get a lot of teacher "junk" over five years. Over the past month I have tried to take a car-load home each night. Even with those small efforts we filled my mom's suburban, Marie's van, my car, and Devin's car the last night to make sure everything was out in time. Now my mom has a garage full of teacher "junk" until I have time to move it all into my new classroom. But keep checking our Blog and I'll show the progress of changing an empty classroom into a wonderful learning environment.

Devin's Field Day

With the end of every school year elementary students look forward to field day. It is a day to test speed, skill, and to have lots of "noncompetitive" fun. This year Devin decided to join the Freedom Elementary Field Day festivities. We found out that he is very skilled with the use of a hula hoop but yet lacks considerable speed when it comes to running the 50 yard dash. Yes, my husband of six feet and two inches was out-run by an eight-year old.