St. Thomas Aquinas

It was a joy getting to visit the church and monastery where St. Thomas Aquinas was for so many years in Naples. It's funny to think of him with a Neapolitan accent!

My Little Polyglot

My little polyglot is growing up! 

Little Leigh, fourth child who will always seem young in our family, is actually a towering intellect and exemplar of Christian faith and virtue. 

She is taking pre-calculus. . auf deutsch (in German). . . and her German math teacher had explained a certain (very challenging) mathematical process. Then he tested the class, giving a much harder question on the test than he had explained in class. How did Leigh do? She ditched the entire process that he had taught in class (since she could not see how it extended to this particular problem), and started afresh with her own method. She told me it made perfect sense to her, but she had never really seen anything like it. To my amazement, when she got her test back, the teacher had written, "Genial!" (Awesome!) in the margin. He then explained to the whole class how he would have done it, but that there was also another way. . . and he proceeded to show the class Leigh's way. Wink at Leigh! What a superstar! 

Leigh had a group presentation in German literature. When the other students were using Chat GBT, cutting and pasting onto slides, Leigh was researching, reading, talking with other classmates, writing her own slides. The teacher chose her to give one of the presentations and she nailed it. 

Leigh speaks Italian with her friends like it is her mother tongue; she is about to take the C2 exam in  German even though she only started learning it 3.5 years ago (Is that humanly possible?????) and French. It's her English that falters a little sometimes! Is she on her way to Freiburg? The U.S? She has 1.5 years left with me, and I am making the most of every moment.   

My Cello

 

It is one of those rare, awe-inspiring moments when you realize that your 200-year-old cello, obtained from your dear uncle who had been a professional cellist, was made in Italy just outside of Milan. . . and now is back in Italy just in time for needed repairs. This precious instrument is back in the hands of the Italians who know cellos better than anyone on earth. Who could have imagined that it would wind up in my hands, and that I would take it to Italy--of all places. Rarely does life work out so neatly. What a gentle happenstance for such a remarkable instrument. 

But now I am playing on a loaned cello. . . and who knows for how long. After all, my precious cello is in the hands of Italians. 

Italy is Most Beautiful in the Fall

Do you see the bus?

Look at the bus that turned onto a major thoroughfare and got stuck! I was in traffic for an extra hour and a half because of that guy. I eventually parked my car, got out, walked around and took photos. 

Incredibile!

Pop Quiz

 When Moses sees the burning bush, who specifically was in the bush? 

a. The Trinity

b. The Father

c. The Son

d. The Holy Spirit

Answer: The Church Fathers all agreed that it was the Son. 

This is what Ron, the kids and I were talking about as we cruised around the waters of the Mediterranean Sea on a little rental dingy this past weekend!

From German to Latin

Annie’s funniest comment last night: “Mom, I love Latin, but it's the German that's so hard! What do I do if I don’t know the German or the Latin?” 

Somehow I had never asked myself the question how Annie's Latin class would be taught. Unreflectively I imagined it being taught from English to Latin since, after all, that is how I studied it for so many years. After two weeks of her starting Latin, I had to stop to grasp it: Annie is learning Latin from a German teacher. Of course it's being taught from German to Latin. 

This girl is a rockstar. Her high school courses are mostly taught in German: biology, chemistry, history, geography math--all the standard classes are taught in German. Two classes--Italian literature and P.E.--are  taught in Italian, one is in French and one in English (English as a foreign language taught to Swiss-Italians). And now she is taking an optional course . . . Latin?? 

How is she doing it? Simply amazing. She pops out of bed in the morning, brushes her teeth, feeds the bunnies, spruces her curls, grabs her backpack and sprints to the car. Is she thinking about German or Latin or the periodic chart (in German) as we drive the Appia? No. She starts her story-telling about the girls in her class and how they are going to get piadini (sandwiches) after school, so she'll be home later than usual; and then what Lorenzo was wearing yesterday and why the girls were laughing and why there are too many guys named Lorenzo in Italy--three in her class alone; and how she had to do a group project and was unfortunately paired with Carlo, and she had to do it all and he didn't even pretend to do any of the work but got the same grade that she did (you're welcome, Carlo!); and how she is going to stage the next scene of the novel she is writing (about four kids in the 21st century who are demi-gods and have super powers) in Rome, and she will be sure to include that Roman transportation workers are on strike that day. 

One day, Annie will grow up. She will leave home and shine her brighter-than-usual light in some other place. Some fortunate young people will get to do life with her--her dorm mates, her classmates, her fellow majors. One day she'll have a family, a career, lots of friends, and she'll write books and tell stories and delight everyone around her with her baking, painting, bright eyes and disarming laugh. 

For now, this gorgeous, radiant girl is living life under my roof and I get to share an orbit with her. It won't last much longer. The hole left in my home and heart will be larger than my heart originally had been. And I will remind myself that Annie exceeded me as a person, even at the tender age of 14. 

Stay gold, Annie! 

(Don't mind Sebo!)

God bless our Texas Family

  

And happy birthday, Dad!!!

 

Welcome, Cecilia! We love you!

A Blessing to be with Mom

 

Lookie here! A new Rombs!

 

Baby Cecilia, we love you!

I'm a grandmother!

Philosophy of the Human Person

Here is the unedited video of my last lecture for Philosophy of the Human Person, taught at the University of Dallas Rome Program, Spring 2024. Lovely students; delightful class!

https://youtu.be/3pg0y6xnb4E

I love our family!

 My favorite thing about this summer so far is spending time with my six (amazing) kids and their spouses/boyfriends! What a marvelous bunch of people! 

Leigh and me

Clare, Mary, Nando and Leigh

Leigh and Mary in Nemi

Leigh and Annie near the Spanish Steps

Heavenly Dinner with Mom and Dad, Annie and Sebastian

 

I love this man!

 

L'Isola di Giglio è meravigliosa!

Ron, Leigh, Annie, Sebastian, Charlie and I fell in love with an island off the Tuscan coast. It is sleepy and scarcely inhabited. It does not have a full grocery store, only bodegas. To get there, you have to go to an island port, Porto Santo Stefano, and then from there take a ferry to Giglio. So, essentially it is two islands away from the mainland. It has its own wine that is orange--white grapes that are processed with the skin. We rented a little motor boat and played in the water all around the island. The colors are so vibrant, they are not even captured in these (unfiltered) photos.