I have been so blessed and humbled by the teachers at Up With Kids! After that first camp, I was asked to help with another, then another, then another... 5 Summer Camps in all!!!! O M Goodness! It was so much fun! I'm so very grateful for the opportunity to have been able to work with those teachers and to have fun with the kids during camp. So many HUGE things have happened in the last few months.... I reached my 8th month of sobriety, we had 2 HUGE family parties at my house, my brother and his family came back to visit from West Virginia, I started an Instagram account (lol, I really like Instagram hence why I just mentioned it as a HUGE thing) Got Ethan and Izzi registered for school, I got a calling in my ward (I pretty much plan parties/socials (best calling ever) ) I also became a visiting teacher (I think I scared some of the relief society with how excited I was to become a visiting teacher) lol..... So now I have a few weeks off before Up With Kids! starts in September. (if you haven't registered your kiddos yet, go to www.upwithkids.com and sign them up)
So what's been in my head lately? I shall tell you ..... right ..... now.....
Russ and I have started a new thing at bed time now that Ethan and Izzi are back with us. We read a story every night with them. Some times its made up..... (when I say made up, I really mean we tell them stories of movies we know they haven't ever seen lol) and some times its from a book. Last night I told them the story of The Flower Man..... a little history on this before I go on to the story....
In 2007 I worked at a book fair thingy.... it was super cool because they had book signings by the authors so I got to see and meet a lot of authors. At the end of the week, the company said that all the employees were allowed to pick one book for free. There were so many books I wanted.... I had a hard time deciding, until I came across this book called The Flower Man, a wordless picture book by Mark Ludy. Now I know what your thinking..... "Really Mallory, you pick a WORDLESS BOOK" ..... before you get a judgmental..... Let me explain this book.....
So this is the cover..... totally caught my eye because, I mean, look how ADORABLE the little old man is! And you notice that he is the only thing in color.....
Here is the next page..... I LOVE how it says that everyone has a story... cuz its true. We all have an amazing life story. You may think you don't, you may think "well nothings every really happened to me that make me special" THAT IS A LIE! You never know, maybe your BORING life that you think could never be anything but BORING, could actually be someone's answer to their life problem.. So share your story... (rant over)
So then you see him walking to this sad looking, grey town. I'm going to skip a few pages.... but it shows him walking through the town, and as you look closer, all the people in the buildings are either, sad, angry, annoyed, crying... etc... NO ONE IS HAPPY
Then he gets to this sad looking, run down house that is for sale. And as a reminder.... everyone in this town is grey and unhappy.....
So he starts to fix it up.... and it turns to color.... also to note... this man ALWAYS has a smile on his face.... also to note again... the people in this town never smile. But if you look closer, there is a little girl leaning on his fence, watching him eagerly.
Remember that eagerly looking little girl..... He gave her a flower... and she turned to color, and is smiling.
See what's happening here? Just one small act of kindness, has a ripple affect. So the next few pages are of all the people in the town turning to color.
So now the whole book has color. You would think it would be the end of the book right?
WRONG! Look close at the house that the flower man fixed up.... It has a For Sale sign. The next few pages so him walking back out of that town, which is all in color now, into a new grey town....
He finds a new house For Sale......
...and it starts all over again
So that is the story...... What did you get from it? Here is what I told my kids....
No matter what bad, horrible, unlucky things that happen to you, there is usually someone else who has it worse. So instead of being grey all the time and sitting in this sad depressed state, be the color that can brighten someone else's day. By doing this it will not only make them colorful, it will in turn, brighten your color! And that will help you stay colorful! This book has been with me for 10 years now. When I first got it, I honestly just thought the illistrations were cute, and it would be a good picture book for Ethan to look at. I never sat and thought about the meaning of it until now. Mark Ludy said it perfectly when he signed my book....
"Sweet Mallory, pleasure meting you! Continue to color your world!"
I hope you all can color your world. Think of how much better and prettier this word could be if we all could help each other color our lives. Find this book so you can look at it more carefully. In each window of each building there is a person, as the book goes on each person starts to get color. So you can look at this book over and over again you can find a new story every time!
My challenge to you:
Share your story, and color your world!
