Olcott Beach

Olcott Beach is a lovely harbor on the southwestern shore of Lake Ontario. Eighteen Mile Creek empties into the lake here, forming the deepest natural port on the whole lake.

There is the harbor, of course, and a collection of seasonal shops right on the water. Krull Park has a beach and picnic area right on the water.

Arch and BamBam looking out at the lake from Krull Park

The old pier at Krull Park

Ice cream at Park Place on the Boardwalk.

Earthly and Heavenly Things

"I would be against choosing whether to play soccer or to study sacred Scripture or canon law. Let us do both," Benedict XVI responded. "We cannot always live in high meditation; maybe a saint at the highest levels of his earthly existence can do that, but normally we live with our feet on the ground and our eyes fixed on heaven.

"Both are given to us by the Lord and therefore loving human things, loving the beauty of this earth, is not just very human, but also very Christian and quite Catholic."

Hat-tip to Elena

Why Latin?

“The Catholic Church has a dignity far surpassing that of every merely human society, for it was founded by Christ the Lord. It is altogether fitting, therefore, that the language it uses should be noble, majestic and non-vernacular.” (Pope John XXIII, Veterum Sapientia, 1962)

Hat-tip to Fr. Gonzales

Veggie Tales

I have only recently discovered Veggie Tales. How can this be? I cannot recommend them enough. If you are going to let your children watch television, you can't go wrong on produce with principles.

Healthy Habit #2: Workout Four Mornings a Week

Last week, Doorman finally, finally cleared up the laundry area where my weight bench is located. It has been buried since we moved here two years ago! And I didn't use it much before that, either!

Years and years ago I began the The Fat-Burning Workout by Joyce Vedral. It is a muscle toning workout which uses small weights and can be done at home. I am going to try to work out four mornings each week.

On the Importance of Parenting

Each man caught in the embrace of materialism is a soul in danger of hellfire, and each soul is infinitely precious to God. For those of us who are parents, the challenge is terrible indeed. We have placed in our care for a few short years precious immortal souls who belong to God, whose destiny is an eternity in and with God, and who depend entirely upon us for the formation of a way of life which will lead them surely to God. And woe to us if we fail in this charge.

-- Mary Reed Newland, We and Our Children

Healthy Habit #1: No Eating After Nine

The first healthy habit I am adopting is avoiding food after 9:00 pm. I had gotten in the bad habit of having a bowl of cereal late at night, before bed. No more. Once nine o'clock comes, no food until morning.

Screening Movies for Children

Last weekend Door Man rented Happy Feet (Widescreen Edition) for the boys. We were disappointed in it, although the boys liked it. It was only then that I remembered Steven Greydanus' web site Decent Films Guide. Greydanus is the film critic for the National Catholic Register. If I had read his review first, we would have skipped Happy Feet altogether.

One of the things I like about the Decent Films site is that you can filter reviewed films by ratings and moral / spiritual value and age appropriateness. So when I filtered for all films with a neutral or positive moral value, rated G I find 53 movies to select from. This will give us a starting place to build our queue on Blockbuster's online rental service.