Inside: A new season of life, a visit to a new country, a colorful new collection, a fun new baking pan and a new appreciation for my mom. ~

My word for 2023 was remember, but if I had to pick a second one to describe the year, it would be new.

Randy and I entered a new season of parenting. We’re now empty nesters, although we both prefer the term bird launchers.

I also started something new—the Remembering Our Parents Instagram community.

There’s more, so I’m continuing this theme for the final Share Four Somethings of the year. Instead of listing four new things in my life, I’m including five—some significant, others more lighthearted. Starting with …

• A New Country 

My daughter Lilly spent the last semester studying in Spain, so the week before Thanksgiving, we went to visit her. I’ve been to Asia twice, but this was my first time anywhere in Europe.

Our destination was Seville, a city of about 700,000 in southwestern Spain that is home to the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. To call this church an architectural wonder is an understatement, especially considering the earliest sections were built in the 1100s and a significant portion added in the 1400s.

I’ve never walked so much in my life. I’ve never seen so many fascinating sights all within a few miles of one another.

It was a wonderful to witness a different culture up close and personal—the food (churros and chocolate, anyone?), people congregating inside and out at all hours of the day and night, eating dinner much later than we do in the United States, seeing men and their sons in puffer jackets, hearing only Spanish spoken most of the time, enjoying much lower prices on practically everything.

It  also was fun to see Lilly in her element in Seville—introducing us to her new friends; interacting in Spanish with waiters, bus drivers and sales clerks; explaining the significance of various forms of art and architecture. Her grasp of the language and her ability to get around in a densely populated city was amazing.

We couldn’t have asked for a better tour guide.

• A New Collection

I’ve collected and used Scarlet Fiestaware dishes for years. Earlier this year, on a trip to Savers, I found the same style of mug from my set of dishes in three other colors. They were so pretty, I had to buy them.

Since then, the mug section has become my first stop whenever I visit a thrift shop. Between gifts and my own searches, I have the same cup in seven colors. And I’m hoping my collection is just beginning.

• A New (to me) Sickness

Somehow, I made it to 2023 without getting Covid. Then this year, I had it twice, about nine months apart.

While I was sicker the first time around, both cases were pretty mild. I suppose it goes without saying, but I am very grateful for that.

For me, the worst part of Covid is not being able to exercise, and then having to build back up to my regular running regimen over several weeks. Being sick hammered home a truth I already knew but feel more acutely now: Exercise is a key element of my mental and emotional health.

• A New Baking Tool

Randy’s parents gave me a large mini loaf pan for Christmas several years ago, but I was always a bit intimidated by it so it sat in the cabinet, unused.

Not anymore. I wanted to try something different in my holiday cookie boxes this year, so I pulled it out and made my daughter’s favorite chocolate-chip pumpkin bread in mini loaf form twice this month.

A 2-ounce cookie scoop made it easy, and also less messy. The pumpkin bread even tasted better in mini loaf form.

Next up: banana bread mini loaves.

• A New Appreciation

Maybe it’s because younger daughter Molly went to college and Lilly flew across the ocean to experience a new culture. Whatever the case, I found myself missing my own mom a great deal this year.

She and my dad successfully launched not just two, but seven children. She died before I reached that same season of life, so it never occurred to me to ask her about it. Now I dearly wish I had.

My mom didn’t just send us all away and forget about us, though. Long before the days of texts, email and WhatsApp, she wrote letters to each one of us, several times a week.

The frequency lessened as we got married and had families of our own. But even now, all these years later, my college friends still marvel about the amount of mail I used to receive in my campus post office box.

I didn’t appreciate it nearly enough at the time, but now I see it. She thought of us often, and she let us know by writing to us. And what a gift that was.

• • •

Now it’s your turn. What was new in your life this past year? Or, if you prefer, share your own list of Something Loved, Read, Learned and Eaten from December or all of 2023.

And Happy New Year to you all!

♥ Lois

P.S. I’m linking up this week with sharefoursomethings, #tellhisstory, InstaEncouragements, Let’s Have Coffee and Grace & Truth.

Spain and mug photos by Molly Flowers.