As my wife worked late, my three small children looked at me expectantly. “What’s for dinner?” one of them said. The last time I had made dinner was when I was in college. Now, I had three mouths to feed, but I was crucially short on ideas. Suddenly, I searched for a possible answer. “Where's the Twister game?” I asked. “Not Twister,” Abbv, my oldest child, said, “dinner.”

I walked to the closet, pulled out the game and tested the spinner (旋转器). Then I put paper between the plastic arrow and the cardboard base and drew four quadrants (象限). I looked at the children and said, “Who wants chocolate?”

Alex, my youngest child, screamed in delight. I wrote in the upper right quadrant: chocolate. Aiden, my middle child, asked, “Dad, what are you doing?” I answered, “You will see in a second.” I pointed at the second area and asked, “How about ice cream?” Alex started dancing around in a circle. “When we get four options written on the spinner, we will spin to see what we do for dinner tonight.” They debated the final section for a few seconds and then collectively decided on pizza.

“We’re going to spin it once, and whatever we land on, that’s what we will do tonight.” Abby shook her head and said, “I don’t think this is a good idea.” Alex yelled, “I want to spin it.” “Great. Go for it.” Alex's second try sent the little plastic arrow flying around and around until it landed on... chocolate.

Everyone screamed, “Chocolate.” I still had no idea what we were going to do. Abby looked at me and asked, “But what are we going to do?” I answered, “Hop in the car.” We took the normal fifteen minutes to find shoes and jackets and manage the car seats. Then we were off to the. grocery store.

We bought chocolate bars, cookies and cakes, and then back into the car full of expectation.

As they brushed teeth and headed to bed, Abby asked,   “Can we do this again tomorrow?”

I couldn’t forget the way I was frozen in front of the class today. My teacher, Mr. Liu had divided the class into groups to do speeches. Today was my turn. However, my hands shook so badly that I couldn’t read my notes. My voice became softer even to silence. Mr. Liu kindly ended my part of speech even though I clearly didn’t finish. He also asked me to stay after class for a moment.

“Betty, I know you are shy, but you worked so hard on this project. I’d hate to see you give up on yourself.” Mr. Liu said, “If I give you another chance until tomorrow, do you think you can find courage?” I nodded, grateful for the chance. I went as quickly as I could to my next class, keeping my head down and hoping the school day would end soon.

When I reached home that afternoon, I could see an inviting light coming from the kitchen windows. Mum was baking(烘焙). She studied my face as I came into the kitchen. “What’s wrong, Betty?”

Tears shone in my eyes. I told her the whole story. Mum was silent for a moment with her hands busy with the cake. “Why is it that you can talk to me about anything and everything but you can’t talk to your class?” Mum asked. She set the time right and then said, “Let me show you something.”

I followed her to the bedroom. There she showed me a book filled with pictures. In it there was a blue ribbon(丝带) that said “First Place” and a picture of herself when she was very young, standing with her parents.

“I won it for public speaking. I started the school year as the shyest girl on the speech team, but I ended the year as the blue ribbon winner. It wasn’t easy at first—not sure of myself at all. I worked hard, and mostly I faced my tears. You just need to find your courage.”

Private Property — Keep Out!

I absolutely love my little brother and sister, Tex and Indi but sometimes I feel extremely annoyed when they don’t respect my stuff.

One afternoon, I overheard Indi and her friend Kate talking about a necklace. “Ooh! Where did you get that cool necklace?” Kate asked Indi.

“I just found it,” replied Indi.

“I love the flower in the middle of the heart!” said Kate admiringly.

“Yeah,” said Indi. “It’s my new favorite thing in the world!”.

It was my necklace! Unable to bottle up my annoyance, I went straight over to them

“Excuse me, Indi,” I said. “Where did you find that necklace?”

“Right there on the floor,” Indi answered, pointing to a spot just outside my bedroom.

“So you found a necklace right outside my bedroom and didn’t think it might be mine?” I stared into her eyes and asked in a louder voice.

Indi shrugged.

“Well, your favorite new thing happens to be my favorite old thing, and I’d like it back Please, please, please just leave my stuff alone once and for all!” I told her.

I must have sounded pretty angry because I found Indi’s eyes filled with tears. She unwillingly took off the necklace and threw it into my hand.

“Here you go,” she sniffled (抽鼻子) and went off to the backyard with Kate.

And that was that. I decided to try to change my sour mood by taking out the handicraft (工艺) box from the cupboard in the living room. I found craft sticks and seashells for a picture frame (相框), put on some music, and got down to working.

As I carefully glued on the shells. I remembered how Indi and I had found them together at the beach. How close and happy we were at that time! That’s when I decided to make the frame for Indi to apologize for overreacting. It was a task requiring time and patience. So by the time was finished. I felt definitely satisfied and even pictured Indi’s smiling face when I gave her the frame. As I felt starving, I went to the kitchen to grab a snack, leaving the glue to dry.

When I returned, I found Tex busily building something with the craft sticks.

Late that afternoon, Mom knocked at my door and asked me to go downstairs for a family meeting.