1 . Do your family have any good traditions to keep? My family keep a “Good Things Jar (罐)” on our ________ table. I have small cut pieces of paper and a pen ________ so that anyone who comes through my kitchen, including friends and family, is free to ________ something good that has ________ to them recently.

Each year at Christmas time, we ________ the jar and take turns reading aloud all the “Good Things” that happened that year. Some are funny but some are ________ and some just give hope. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was especially important for us to hope by ________ the “Good Things” that showed up in our lives.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, it was one of the most terrifying things I could have ________ . I had always been ________ myself a “germaphobe (有洁癖的人)”, so a pandemic was like a nightmare (噩梦) ________ for someone like me. Firstly, I worried about every surface we ________ , schools being shut down for my children, and ________ myself and those I loved becoming ill or dying.

________ , through this difficult time, good things were still happening. And at the end of the year, we were ________ to see our “Good Things Jar” was as full as the ________ years.

“Zarah, Will, and I had a picnic outside and I taught Will how to clap with his feet.”

“Even though Grandma is on chemo, she kicked the sickness!”

“My family ________ me the best surprise birthday party ever!”

…

My “Good Things Jar” is like a jar of bottled ________ . The little messages ________ us that we can always ________ good things to come our way, even during the most difficult times. And at this time especially, when we all need hope, I ________ you to create your “Good Things Jar” today.

3 . Growing up I never wanted to be “just a mum”. I thought that when I’d have my own children I would take some time off but then ease back into the workforce fairly _________.

My twin girls entered the world as _________ premature babies. I’m not sure if that made me even more _________ of them, but when the time came to organise my re-turn to work I_________. I thought after twelve months of singing nursery rhymes, playing peekaboo (躲猫猫) and_________the baby food preparation I’d be_________ to use my brain again.

As it turns out, that’s not the case. I love staying with my daughters, being_________, cooking food, singing songs and reading books. Yes, some _________do become very repetitive, especially when they’re very young. But the older my two get, the more fun _________ them becomes.

A while back. I sat down with my partner and we discussed my __________ to work. As we don’t have any family in New Zealand we would have to rely on __________ , and with twins you have to earn a decent wage to make working __________.

But at the moment I feel that I’m the best person to__________with my girls. Why would I pay somebody to do a job I love? And in the end we let my __________ decide. Now I’m a proud stay-at-home mum.

When people who haven’t got long to live are asked if they have any __________,no one ever says spending too much time with their children, but many say working too much.

4 . I felt anxious when coming home from school and going into my room. Every day, my________was something different. The hours away at school were long enough to cause a terrible________to my peaceful harbor. Today was no________.

As I entered the house, Mom________me with a smile. It seemed like nothing was________. But I was still doubtful about it. Yesterday, I discovered a chocolate chip cookie was around the________of my favorite figurine (小雕像).________, Callie had enjoyed the cookie so much that she wanted to share it with my figurine.

I________Callie, who had just turned three. I didn’t see her, but I heard the TV blaring (响) in the other room. As I________the family room, I noticed it was pretty________. There were toys all over the floor, but none of them seemed to be mine. Maybe she hadn’t________my room today. I was so________that I breathed a sigh of relief.

I pushed my room door open... and saw________! There were a few headless dolls and some broken toys. “She did it again!” I screamed in________. My mother ran up to me, embarrassed. She________to put a Callie-proof lock on my door tonight. I felt________, because I knew that soon my room would truly belong to me. ________, I was still angry with my little sister so I went to tell her how she had made life________for me.

“Callie..” I started.

“Hooray!” she shouted.

She leaped off the sofa and hugged my knees with such happiness that I could only look down at her and smile.________, she was only three and learning about the world in her own way. And she always chose to explore and________my room because she loved me, her big sister.

7 . The Language of Flowers

Ding dong! I looked up from the couch. Who in the world could that be? My body was troubled with illness, so I’d ________myself away. Friends telephoned, texted, emailed and sent cards. I didn’t ________, thinking that I had nothing to offer anyone in the miserable condition I was in.

I ________got up and opened the door to a flower delivery. As I put the flowers on my dining table, I was struck by its ________. It was comprised of solitary blossoms of many varieties that shouldn’t really ________yet somehow did. The mystery flowers had come in a blue jar, without a card.

Instead of returning to the couch, I ________ the florist. He told me some of my friends were behind the ________, secretly. “They wanted to get a ________to you, ” he said, “through the language of flowers.”

The group had followed him and picked very ________stems after consulting an old book. “I learned some things,” the florist said, then ________: “The red carnation (康乃馨) meant ‘Our hearts ache for you’. The yellow tulip (郁金香) wanted to see ________in my smile again. The pink carnation had a few ________words to say about never forgetting me.”

The more I understood what the flowers were ________, the more I started to remember the woman who might have ________them before I separated myself from everyone and everything. My friends knew I was still that woman, with ________beyond my health.

9 . My Dad became the only parent after my mother’s death. Chatting with others could ease his pain. Every morning, he_______________his favorite neighborhood donut(甜甜圈) shop where he would have_________with people there. When we left,_________the bear claw(爪子) in a small box was a chocolate- covered donut for me. In Dad’s truck, my job during the journey was to_________Dad’s coffee between my knees to keep it from spilling.

As time passed and I grew older and bigger, the donut shop became a special place for us to celebrate my various wins. Even if I didn’t win or place, Dad would_________take me there._________, I grew up and left Dad’s home. On my wedding day, Dad handed me a small gift box. In it was a small chocolate-covered donut. My heart was_________, melting quicker than the chocolate frosting would have in an oven.

In October 1989, Dad found out he had inoperable cancer. We lived an ocean apart, and our visits were   ___________. A year later, I was attacked, undergoing three back surgeries in the hospital. Dad’s cancer had_________so much that his body was barely able to hold him up. Against doctor’s orders, he flew to the hospital to____________me. Dad’s________________body lay over my chest, with his skeletal arms hugging me, saying how he wished he could trade places with me.

As they prepared me for surgery, I watched Dad’s face__________. They wheeled me out of the room and into surgery. When I woke up, I was back in my room, lying in bed. Nobody was around. As I__________the telephone to call Dad, I saw a paper plate holding a____________covered with chocolate.

The cancer took him just days after he left my bedside. Now when I drive past donut shops, I can’t help but__________, recalling those best memories together with my Dad.

10 . I survey the pile of dirty dishes jamming the sink after the party. With no working _______ except my two hands, the task is huge.

Hot water _______ the sink, I plunge (猛扎) my hands into the _______. Then it occurs to me that every dish and spoon brings back memories. I bring up a tiny spoon, still covered with applesauce. I smile as I _______   the eleven-month-old eating it with wild abandon. I pick up a _______ and I remember my oldest daughter’s trying to cut meat for the four-year-old sister while correcting the eight-year-old’s rude table _______. A bowl with bits of lettuce (生菜) stuck like glue reminds me of countless discussions among daughters about diet food and losing _______. Eating delicious food and keeping a perfect figure is an endless _________ for girls.

My three daughters, now, are _______ and have their own families. They get along as well as they did when they were ________. My grandsons seem to be ________ like their mothers. The two oldest wanted their bikes brought out to ________ together. The youngest delighted us when he, feeling the soft carpet, erupted with bursts of laughter. All memories ________. My three daughters did the same thing years ago — riding bikes, feeling the soft carpet...

The dishes are done, and the sink is ________. But my life is full. It is full of happy children and grandsons. I thank the dishes for ________ me.