Green Eggs and Ham

 Literally!

Black and White

Frascati at Night

Medieval Corridor

Tivoli

Ron and I had a date in Tivoli, a town only 45 minutes away. It is an ancient city much like Orvieto--these places are jewels of Italy. First we visited Hadrian's palace and then the Villa d'Este, the latter of which is a Renaissance villa dedicated to humanism and replete with many fountains. It is riveting to spend a leisurely afternoon with my husband and hear his thoughts about the Renaissance. One of his great lines today: "It's interesting how, in absolutizing nature (and excluding the divine) we have now lost nature." Inspired by Chesterton, a truly profound thought. 

 

5 Stitches

    Our family had just finished prayer time, and we were all huddled around, laughing and talking. Sebastian was running around and tripped.  His head knocked right into a piece of furniture, and blood started spewing.  Ron, Clare and I raced off to the ER, and he got 5 stitches! Poor little guy!

Clare was especially fantastic, assuring Sebastian that he would be proud of his stitches after the fact, like she is of hers.  As she predicted, he is much better today, simply LOVING telling every one his "glory story" and showing off his bandage. Thanks be to God for good doctors and health care.  And thanks be to God for Sebastian.  What a heart-breaker he is! 

Celebrating Mighty Is Her Call Inc.

Here is my good husband taking me out for a night on the town, celebrating the official documents arriving in the mail: Mighty Is Her Call, Inc, a ministry for Catholic mothers, now exists!

He is so wonderful to me! It is only because of the support he gives me that I can do the website (about to be launched!) and the events (the Ball in the Ball is coming up!) that I am doing.  God bless him!

It Feels Like a Dream

   In the car, Clare was chattering away about the Confirmation retreat she just attended all weekend.  My other kids were laughing, probing, joking, and pelting her with questions about her 2 nights away with the youth group.
   We were driving through my grandmother's wonderful old neighborhood, and we passed all the places most memorable to me: my favorite Mexican food restaurant, my favorite shopping areas, the flavored popcorn shop, and the smoothie bar.  Those streets were the ones on which I learned to drive when I was sixteen.  The stoplights, the turn lanes, the curbs, the pavement are all so familiar.  There is no place in the world that is more like "home" to me than that little corner of the earth.
    As we drove, Clare's stories warmed my heart.  I thought, "I never could have imagined this.  When I was a teenager, I could not have begun to picture myself driving my own teenager and a bunch of other kids on these same roads.  It all happened so fast.  I am so grateful that I have been so blessed by my family.  It feels like a dream."

Toof-picks

"Toof-pick, toof-pick, anybody wanna toof-pick!"
Sebastian tried to sell toothpicks to all of us throughout the afternoon.  He reminded me of all our other children at four years old.  But until today, he had not really reminded me of our other kids.  They played together for hours on end.  They were happy and relaxed.  Sebastian, however, was not really that way.  He was clingy to me, grumpy, and prone to fits. 
    I think the big change is because of the homeschool.  This one short year, we are homeschooling, and Sebastian is around most of the kids most of the time.  He is integrating into their play time, their projects, their glue and glitter, their baking and cracking eggs.  Currently, Leigh is the master of Rombs play.  She orchestrates "restaurant," animal games, and hide and seek.  Sebastian has never been more happy, more silly, more relaxed.  It feels like he is finally a Rombs.   

The Joy of My Life

     I'm a struggler, and normally, I would not describe myself as a typically joyful person.  But joy has finally come in full bloom in my life, and most of it is due to my family.  Our oldest is in high school and has not set off into the world yet.  He is a friend and an inspiration to everyone in this home.  Our youngest has grown out of his worst toddler tantrums and is easier to manage.  I get to spend each day, all day long, with my four daughters as well, whom I get to educate, encourage and enjoy, because they are four of the finest young women I've ever met.  Evenings with my husband in the living room picking on the classical guitar and everyone huddled together, talking and laughing, are a dream come true.
     When I was in college, I visited a friend at his home.  Seeing his family shocked me--they all liked each other and wanted to be together.  This family had a great big house, but they never spread out or found their own quiet spaces.  Instead, they were always clustered together in the living room and adjoining kitchen.  It was as though there was a strange gravitational force in that house that kept them from going off on their own.  And they actually seemed to like it.
     That became a life goal: If I ever had a family, I wanted one that liked to be together.  And with homeschooling this year, I can say we are together all the time.  What a test of the goal!  It could be a disaster.  But to my great delight, it is a joy.  The joy of my life.

Cowboy

Look at this cowboy.  He is always ready to fight the bad guys.  But the next moment he softens and says, "I wuv you, Mom" or "You're the best, Mom!"  I love this kid!!

400 High School Students Coming Over Tonight

In addition to ALL the other things today mentioned in the last post, we are also hosting 400 high school students tonight!  Over the past few months, we refinished our pool, renovated our cabana and bathroom, cleared out the carport, re-carpeted the gym, and power washed our house, trying to get that all done by this date.  Ta-Da!  We did it!  Tonight, we have a clean, tidied up, refurbished, partially renovated house!

My clip on the 5 o'clock news

     I was finishing our homeschool day, while a very old man from a fridge repair company was replacing our coil and condenser in the kitchen.  The phone rang.  It was a reporter from NBC5.  "Are you the Dr. Kathryn Rombs who signed the petition regarding the pope?"
   "Yes I am," I replied.
   "Can I come over and interview you?"
    Nicole was in our house 15 minutes later with Chris, the videographer.  Here is the clip:
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Dallas-Bishop-492163571.html

    What a day!  As NBC was finishing up, our photographers came in and began their set up.  I had hired a photographer to shoot Jolly and me, as we are about to launch our website, "Mighty Is Her Call," whose aim is to raise awareness of the genius of open to life Catholic Motherhood and encourage mothers as they give the gift of themselves.  So, as one crew wrapped up, the other began! All sorts of head shots, family shots, and portraits were taken in various arrangements.
    Then, Ron laughed and said, "Guess who is on his way?  J.J. with a bunch of nuns!"  J.J. Sanford, our friend, our dean, and our very favorite UD administrator brought three Nashville Dominican Sisters to our house to pay us a quick visit.  Can you believe it?  It was absolutely lovely and truly, the strangest day I've had in a long time.  I stood in our entry way explaining almost apologetically that I had signed this petition, with the name of UD as my workplace, and it having gone viral around the world, without even mentioning it to him.  It had all just happened so fast, and I had no idea the the petition would get so much attention.
    The photographers packed up and left, and then the sisters and J.J. made their goodbyes.   As the poor old refrigerator repair man packed up his tool kit and ripped the receipt out of his booklet and handed it to Ron, he said, "I am in other people's houses every single day.  It is what I do.  I am an old man, and I have seen a lot.  But I have never seen anything like this."

Best Aunt Ever

Here is Aunt Kimmy who has won Sebastian's heart.  She was his "date" at a Rangers game, and bought him hot dogs, a ball, glove and cap.  She is teaching him to pitch.  How blessed he is to have an aunt like her!

Family is Everything

    Family is everything.  It is such an important part of our lives.  If family is not going well, we carry that with us and are dragged down wherever we go.
   What a blessing to have relationships with my mom, dad, these crazy sisters and brothers that is thriving!

Amazing travelers!

I am shocked at how well this troop did, crossing the Atlantic, then enduring 7 more hours of travel to get home.  Annie looks as adorable after an 11-hour plane ride as she does first thing in the morning!

The four girls were amazingly helpful with Sebastian and with the bag transfer at our layover, as well as getting through customs.  

Getting home was a delight.  We have been hard at work, switching four of the kids' bedrooms (and thus de-cluttering and redecorating), and repairing some garden beds our dog messed up and me building a little garden for Mary.  

How blessed I am to have my family.  

Mesmerized by the Beauty

   As our work and play in Italy, France and Greece comes to a close, I am mesmerized.  It is astonishing to me that our family of eight has been able to do these summers for seven summers in a row.  How can I thank God adequately for the blessing He has given us?  As people always say to Ron when he has explained his summer work, "What a job!"
   This summer trip has had the theme of beauty.  Perhaps it really began in the south of France.  I had never seen such beautiful colors, landscapes, mountain ranges, hillside villages.  I had never tasted mussels or baguettes or wine so delicious.  I had never smelled perfume or flowers quite so beautiful.  Although western Europe is close to the U.S. in many ways in terms of modern technology, medicine,  banking systems, and so forth, I felt a light year of distance between me and the locals of Provence.  Their heritage of sheep herding, lavender farming, bread making, fishing, and the like still defines who they are.  If modern Americans identify around Apple devices and having adequate wifi, the locals of Provence identify around beautiful treasures that grow out of the ground, whether it be flowers that make world-famous perfume, or grapes that become world-famous wine.
    The Greeks are no less exemplary for the world in terms of beauty.  The white washed stone structures built into Paleolithic mountainsides, the sunsets that spread of thousands of miles, the deep blue of the Mediterranean Sea, all have a healing power.  They anoint the eyes, cleanse the heart, calm the spirit.  This sea and land is where civilization--what many today would arrogantly call pre-historic only for the incidental, accidental fact that we do not have any recorded history from their rich, personal lives and cultures--first sprang.  The Mediterranean Sea has no sharks because it is a sea, not an ocean.  It is temperate, never getting too cold.  It is life-giving.  The climate, the land, the fertility, the accessibility from island to island all contribute to a happy, delightful springing forth of human culture.  Being there for so long, it finally made such intuitive sense to me why it is the birthplace of who we are.

Goat and Rooster

Ron, Annie, Sebastian and I ventured into the villages on the backside of the mountain on Naxos.  We found fishing villages and little clusters of goat herders and shepherds.  At sunset, we sat at a restaurant with an outdoor terrace and ordered.  What were we going to eat?  We might as well eat local.  So, we got roasted rooster, grilled sheep sausage, and chunks of goat meat.  We got a huge platter of local goat and sheep cheese with local, Naxos honey drizzled all over it.  We ordered zucchini balls with tzaziki sauce that was perhaps the best tasting food I have ever had--I could eat that every day.  We drank red wine from Macedonia--the only" imported" item on the table.  It was absolutely to die for.  Everything was so flavorful, so delicious, so outrageously wonderful.

Island Time: Vacation Part II

Day 7: Sebastian and Wesley had lots of swim time, and I absolutely loved watching them play in the Mediterranean Sea!

Ron and I had a date night at the Labyrinth restaurant, a wonderful place on the old town.  After a rough start tasting wine from Santorini, and after much deliberation, we wound up with a shockingly good wine from Macedonia.

Day 8:   The next day, Hunter, Stephanie, Jacob, Mary and I went to the Archaeological Museum of Naxos.  We saw remains of the neolithic period, as well as early Cycladic statues and artifacts from the Bronze Age, 3rd millennium BC.

Today, the six divers passed their scuba test!  Leigh scraped by with a 78 (you had to have a 75 to pass), but she wins major points for considering it a real possibility that fish might nibble at her because they think she is "fish food"!

We had a wonderful dinner at an outdoor restaurant with a garden patio.  The food was truly fine cuisine, and the cousins ruled the roost at their own table. Hunter and Stephanie gave Annie a lesson on the refugee crisis and ways we can help.  

I told them about Wesley telling me that he hoped he could make a billion dollars so that his parents could retire and help the refugees full time--a precious sentiment from a 14 year old!

Day 9: This was the day of the BIG REEF DIVE for the divers.  Ron went with them on the boat out to the reef.  The divers had a great time exploring.  What an accomplishment!
      This evening, Hunter took us up to a mountain top restaurant called Rotunda.  It was a stone's throw from Mount Zas cave, where legend has it, Zeus was raised as a child, hiding out from Cronos who wanted to swallow him (as he had Zeus' brothers and sisters).  The restaurant was so beautiful and the view the best I might have ever seen.  What a joy to be together in this beautiful place!

Day 10: Hunter and Stephanie took all 13 of us out on a sailboat.  Captain Yannis brought us around the island to beautiful coves and bays.  Such beautiful water!  The ride was so restful and peaceful.

 This time with our cousins was an incredible joy.  It was one of our family's best vacations ever.  We love our cousins so much, and felt at home with them.  How our kids all enjoyed their bonding time!  Thank you, Hunter, Stephanie, and triplets, for joining us in Greece!  We love you!

Our Island Vacation

Our summer vacation is a much needed rest!

Day 1: We slept in, and then met up with our cousins, Hunter and Stephanie and their triplets, in Athens and had a a great dinner in our favorite outdoor taverna.

Day 2: We took a ferry to Naxos, a beautiful Cycladic island in the heart of Greece.  We ended our day lying on the beach under tiki umbrellas and swimming in the Mediterranean Sea.

Day 3: We had lots of time on the beach, lots of time to read, do art projects, and even take a little nap.  We ended the day with a grownup's dinner on the beach: wooden tables, white table cloths, small tumblers of white wine, fried calamari and courgettes, lamb souvlaki, and lots of laughs.

Day 4: I had  a long run on  the beach and lots of time swimming in the sea.  Ron and Sebastian rented an ATV, which made Sebastian's dreams come true.  I made rice and Greek lentil stew, cut up lots of watermelon.  While Hunter and Stephanie had a date night, the rest of us ended the day with a family movie: "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."

Day 5: I took Annie and Sebastian on an ATV ride around the island.  We rode so much that they wanted to be done at the end--I was very content to exhaust Sebastian's desire to ride.

 Meanwhile, 6 older kids began a scuba certification course!  Jacob, Mary, Clare, Leigh, Harrison and Natalie spent four half days doing dives and taking instruction.  What a blast for them.

We ended the day with a pizza dinner in an outdoor taverna.  Sebastian made fast friends with Hunter and Stephanie, playing and goofing off.  Afterwards, everyone came over to our balcony and we had ice cream.

Day 6: The scuba divers went for another day of instruction.  Meanwhile, Wesley and Annie took a bubbles class, an introduction to scuba.  They were outfitted with the gear, and took a one hour shallow dive.  Some of us had lots of time in the beachside cafe by the dive shop, and others of us went to the beach!  Date night for Ron and me.  Thanks, cousins, for watching our kids!