My Grandpa
Grandpa and The Stolpe Boys
When I get to this time of year, I often think about my Grandpa Stolpe. (I’ll tell you why tomorrow.) My Grandpa passed away a few years ago, and he is missed by his whole family. Grandpa has two kids, seven grandchildren, and fifteen great-grandchildren. I’m sure each one of us would have a different perspective on our grandfather, and I wanted to share a little bit about my take on the man my cousin calls Big Grey.
Grandpa was first and foremost a follower of Christ. He lived it. He breathed it. He provided a clear example that Christ should come first in our lives. I remember Grandpa leading us in prayer and Bible reading when we sat down for breakfast when we were there for a visit. He was always involved at church. And he had a huge heart for missions and bringing God’s love to everyone around the world. As we sat down for breakfast, I remember Grandma and Grandpa praying specifically for missionaries around the world.
Grandpa was a killer croquet player. Whenever we went over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, the croquet set would come out of the garage and the croquet match to end all croquet matches would begin. Grandpa knew the rules like the back of his hand, and he was always quick to teach us the correct way to play the game. After Grandpa beat the rest of us around the croquet course, he would go back and knock out the older cousins so the younger grandchildren could win.
Grandpa had a great sense of humor. Some of my cousins and siblings might argue with me on this, but this is something I carry with me. Grandpa had a desire to make everyone laugh. He always had a corny joke or response that broke the ice and made you chuckle. For example, when the cantaloupe came out, he would say, “I can’t elope. I’m already married to Grandma.” Or if we had nectarines, he would say “I don’t neck with Irene; I neck with Grandma.” I’m proud to say that I picked up some of that humor.
Grandpa was Swedish. Grandpa knew how to speak Swedish. He shared the Swedish traditions with our family – especially the Christmas Swedish traditions. I big part of celebrating Christmas is eating the Swedish food. I attribute this to my Grandma and Grandpa. At Grandpa’s funeral, they even sang a Swedish hymn.
Grandpa was an incredible example. After his faith, his marriage was always his top priority. He and Grandma were a team. They complimented each other well. They put each other first before their own interests and needs. Grandpa would do anything for Grandma. After his faith and Grandma, family was a top priority. He would do anything for all of us. He always wanted the best for each one of us. He and Grandma prayed consistently for each one of us. Grandpa had a special relationship with each of us. When we showed up for a visit, he showed us off like we were movie stars.
I share about my Grandpa to brag, to share, and to remember.
Who in your life to you want to remember and why?
Our Christmas Ornament Tradition
My first Christmas ornament from 1971
I love this time of year when we break out the family traditions related to the Christmas season. One of the traditions that I love is when we put up the Christmas tree and decorate it with special ornaments. Each year, we give our kids a “special” ornament that represents something about their year. This year, our daughter received a canoe ornament from the Christmas shop in Mont Tremblant. This ornament will help her remember the fun we had on our family vacation to Canada this summer when she paddled around a small lake in a canoe with her brother. Our son received a ski gondola ornament also from the Christmas shop in Mont Tremblant. This ornament will help him remember our hike to the top of Mont Tremblant and the easy trip down in the gondola.
We’ve been doing this tradition since the kids were born, so they are starting to develop quite a collection of these “special” ornaments. Each year when we set up the tree, they take turns hanging up their ornaments and reminding us all about their ornaments and the memories that are associated with each of them. It’s a fun tradition!
They're almost as tall as the tree! How did that happen?
I can’t tell you that Leanne and I thought of this on our own, because that wouldn’t be true! My parents actually carried out the same tradition for my brothers and me. I still have all my ornaments from when I was a kid, and yes, I still hang them up every year. And I think my kids actually enjoy hearing the stories associated with my ornaments. As we were hanging up our ornaments this year, we wondered if the tradition would carry on to our grandchildren some day. I hope so!
Do you have any tree trimming traditions at your house? What is one of the “special” ornaments that you hang on your tree every year?
Leaders Are Readers – Creating My Reading List For 2012
“Leaders are readers.”
I’ve heard Tim Sanders quote this in several interviews on the radio and on podcasts.
It seems to me that there is a lot of truth to this statement. When we feed our minds (with good stuff), we fill it up with tools that are useful for leading and for life. With this in mind, I am beginning to assemble a list of potential books to consider reading in 2012. I should let you know that I’m generally a slow and very deliberate reader, so I’m planning to narrow the list down to twelve with a couple of alternates. Here are some of the books that I’m considering so far:
The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson
EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey
Today We Are Rich by Tim Sanders
The No Complaining Rule by Jon Gordon
Community: Taking Your Small Group Off Life Support by Brad House
Creating Community: Five Keys To Building A Small Group Culture by Andy Stanley
So these are a few of my ideas. I will most likely throw in a fiction book or two (or three).
Now I’d like to hear your thoughts. What would you add to the list? What’s on your “To Read List”? What have you read recently that you think I should consider? I can’t wait to see what you’ve got!
December 3rd, 2011 Week In Review…
We’ve come to another weekend, and I have to say that this week didn’t let me down. It was busy, it was challenging, and it was fun! I hope you had a great week as well. As I look forward to what is sure to be a great weekend, I just wanted to recap the week.
After a slower week last week due to the holidays, it appears that people came back to the Stretched blog as they’ve returned to their regular blog reading routines. It also looks like we may have picked up a new reader or two. As always, I’m thankful for all of you who stopped by and left a comment or just checked things out. Monday’s post was a recap of my Thanksgiving Marathon experience. I really appreciated the encouragement of so many of you who cheered me on despite being miles away. On Tuesday, I shared my thoughts about our recent visit to the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero. Wednesday featured my thoughts about seeing Mary Poppins on Broadway. Thursday, I shared my monthly recap post on what went down in November. Friday finished things off with another fun Ice Breaker about Christmas movies. This week we learned that It’s A Wonderful Christmas Story when you go on Vacation with an Elf and The Muppets. Check these posts out if you missed something this week.
Thanks a million for your contribution to the blog through comments. I’m hoping to catch up on returning comments this weekend. I love what you all contribute to this Stretched Community! I just wanted to remind you all to take the take to Subscribe to the blog, so you can have Stretched delivered daily to your e-mail inbox. Also, don’t forget to stop by the Jon Stolpe Stretched Facebook fan page. Become a fan to keep up with some additional Stretched stuff. Thanks!
A couple of my favorite posts from the rest of the blogging community this week:
How about you? How was your week? If you’re a blogger what happened over your way this week? Did you read any great blog posts this week? Share with the rest of us!
Ice Breaker – Christmas Movies
It’s that time of the week again…time for an ice breaker question! For those of you who are new or who forgot, ice breaker questions are used to help people get to know each other – to “break the ice” so to speak. I love hearing what other people have to say and how they think. So for today, I’m throwing out another simple ice breaker question. I’ll answer it first, then it’s your turn. Answer the question by leaving a comment for us all to enjoy. Thanks!
Question: What is your favorite Christmas movie?
My Answer: Here you go….
If you have ABC Family coming to your TV, they are promoting their annual 25 Days of Christmas movie event where they show 25 different Christmas movies leading up to Christmas Day. I don’t catch most of them, but it’s hard for me not to get a little excited about Christmas when I see some of the movies. I’m a sucker for movies like Polar Express, The Santa Clause, and Home Alone. But my favorite Christmas movie doesn’t usually make it to ABC Family’s list.
My favorite Christmas movie of all time…are you ready…drumroll…It’s A Wonderful Life. I know it’s an old one, but I love the story, the humor, and the timeless message of the movie. I love how Jimmy Stewart gets a second chance once he discovers how different life would be if he had never been born. This movie is usually shown on Christmas Eve, so I try to catch it after we get home from the Christmas Eve service at church.
(By the way, Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story would probably make my top 5 list.)
So there you have it, my answer to the question. Now it’s your turn….I can’t wait to hear what you’ve got to say!
November 2011 Top Posts
We’ve reached the end of another month. November was another good month at Jon Stolpe Stretched. Traffic on the blog increased slightly since October! Comments continued to roll-in. And new people joined in the conversation and community. The blog added a four new subscribers, and the Jon Stolpe Stretched Facebook Page attracted several new followers in its third month. Here are the top 10 posts and top 3 commentors for the month:
Top 10 Posts
1. Paterno and Grace: Is There Any Chance They Go Together?
2. Ten Things Every Small Group Leader Should Know (#3 from last month)
3. Me and Grace: Is There Any Chance They Go Together?
4. Jimmy Buffett, Taffy, and Church Searches – Stretching Through Blogging Blunders by Larry Carter
6. Thanksgiving Marathon Recap
10. Ice Breaker – Encounters with Famous People
Top 3 Commentors (We blew by the 1,000th comment mark this month!)
1. Larry Carter
2. Arny Sanchez
3. Leah Adams
I now have 24 regular subscribers. If you’d like to become a subscriber, see the “Follow Blog” window on your right. It’s great to see this starting to take off.
Thank you to all of you for reading and contributing to the blog and to the reader community. I continue to grow a lot through this experience.
As always, I love to share your “stretching” stories on my blog, so leave me a comment if you’re interested in being a guest blogger on Jon Stolpe Stretched.
Finally, if you’re a blogger, how did your blog to this month? What was your top post? What was your favorite post?
Thoughts From Seeing Mary Poppins On Broadway
Last week during our New York City adventure, we visited the New Amsterdam Theater to see the Disney musical, Mary Poppins. Our Broadway evening actually began in the afternoon when we lined up in the middle of Times Square to purchase discounted show tickets at the TKTS kiosk. As we waited in line we decided to pursue tickets for Mary Poppins or Sister Act. When we reached the end of the line, the Mary Poppins tickets were available at a better price, so we went with this show.
When we arrived at the theater later that evening, we discovered that our seats were up near the back of the balcony in one of the biggest theaters in the theater district. Nevertheless, we were happy to be there seeing a Broadway show with our kids.
As the show began, we quickly learned that we were in for a treat as we experienced sets and props that were amazing and actors that did an amazing job with the songs we all grew up listening to that were part of the original movie. My favorite songs were Step In Time and Supercalifragilisticexpaladocious (did I spell that correctly?). You couldn’t help but tap your feet and clap your hands as the dancing and hand jiving continued on the stage.
For me, the story as played out in the musical emphasized the importance of taking time for family. In the musical, Mr. Banks discovers that his focus on his career and wealth have clouded his focus on what’s more important – his family. By the end of the musical, Mr. Banks finds a balance between work and family. I was inspired by this part of the story. I generally believe that I keep my family first, but there’s no question that there are times when my focus on work and other things can overshadow things that should have a higher priority in my life.
And so…I left New York City seeing a great show and being reminded of a great lesson.
What’s got your focus right now? Are your priorities in the right order?
Have you ever seen a show on Broadway? Share your experience.
The 9/11 Memorial
Our first stop during our visit to New York City last week was to Ground Zero and the recently opened 9/11 Memorial. The memorial is located on the grounds of the World Trade Center twin towers that were destroyed when terrorists crashed two planes into the buildings on September 11, 2001. The memorial consists of two pools located in the footprints of the original towers. The names of the victims of 9/11 along with those who died in a previous terrorist plot in 1993 are inscribed in stone and are located at the perimeters of each of these pools.
It was a moving experience to visit this memorial. As we looked at the names and observed the water falling into the 30 foot deep pools, we noticed a family who had just found the name of a loved one on the perimeter stones. See this family shed a few tears as they rubbed their fingers against the engraved name brought a reality to our visit that I hadn’t expected. I didn’t know anyone who was killed on September 11th, but I remember the surreal feeling of watching the normally busy skies around Allentown, PA suddenly become quiet. I remember catching news reports as I went to lunch with some fellow construction workers and as I drove home that day. It hardly seemed possible.
Seeing the site of the World Trade Center Towers reminded me of these events, but it also brought some positive thoughts and feelings as well. As we prepared to leave the memorial and head up to Midtown, I had a feeling of hope as we walked by the construction sites of many new buildings that are going up around the 9/11 Memorial. I was reminded that good can come out of such tragedy. And I was inspired by the challenge to re-discover unity.
Where have you been that has stirred a variety of emotional responses? What was your response?
Thanksgiving Marathon Recap
The race started and finished at the tortoise and the hare statue
As promised, here are some of my reflections on completing this year’s Thanksgiving Marathon in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York City, NY.
As I’ve shared before running a marathon is an ambitious task. Most don’t just get up and decide they’re going to run a marathon today. It takes time, energy, and lots of training. But something I’ve relearned through my experience on Thursday is that you can be a runner at any distance. People can get so caught up in the “I could never do a marathon” or “I’m not a runner” or “I admire people who can run, but it’s not for me.” What I loved about Thursday’s race is that runners could choose from a multiple of distances – 5K, 1/8 Marathon, 10K, 1/4 Marathon, 1/2 Marathon, 3/4 Marathon, and Full Marathon. It was also clear that you didn’t have to be Ryan Hall, Jesse Owens, or Carl Lewis to get out there and run. There were runners and walkers of all ages and abilities. I loved it!
Regarding my experience, the day was perfect – sunny and cool. We arrived at the park in plenty of time to find a parking space at the Van Cortlandt Golf Course. As we walked through the park, we could see people gathering across a flat open field. I thought to myself that this is a good sign the course will be somewhat flat. Was I ever wrong! As we arrived at the starting line, I grabbed my runner’s bib. I love that they give all the runners number one for these holiday races. I stretched out and began to find my place at the starting line. Before the race started, the race organizer gave some instructions at informed runners that the marathon course had been changed due to the previous two days of rain. Now, we were running 8 hilly trail laps instead of 4 flatter trail laps. That didn’t sound too exciting, but there was nothing I could do about it besides get moving.
Coming off the trails for a lap around the field
As the gong went off to start the race, I started my watch and my GPS to track my time and mileage, and I started my marathon journey. About 1/2 mile into the race, we split off of the flat open trail and turned onto a gradual uphill trail that began to narrow. Every twenty or thirty yards there was a railroad tie to hop over. I’m pretty sure they were placed to control erosion, but they became quite an obstacle as the race wore on. The course proceeded to run up and down through the wooded and sometimes single track trails. As I popped out of the woods the first time, I was greeted by my own personal cheering section. It was such an encouragement to see Leanne and the kids throughout the morning as I made my way through the course. (Apparently, they were the only spectators for the race, and they received many thanks from other runners.)
Bringing me into the finish
Despite the challenging course, I was off to a good start. I ran the first half of the marathon on pace to finish at 3 hours and 20 or 30 minutes which would have beat my marathon PR by a huge margin. But… I kind of knew that this was probably a bit too fast for me – especially on this course. As the race continued, the uphills became more and more of a challenge. Eventually, I was walking most of the uphills and trying to run the downhills and the flats. It’s amazing how the body breaks down over the course of a marathon. I didn’t quit, but it was a real challenge to keep my body moving as fast as I wanted it to go. As the laps continued, I also realized that a marathon course that requires this type of repetition is probably not my favorite type of course.
The Gong - The privilege of the finisher
Nonetheless, I kept going until the finish. My daughter ran the last quarter-mile with me as I approached the finish line. You could tell that she was proud of her dad. What more could you ask for in a marathon experience?
If that wasn’t enough, Leanne and the kids reminded me to hit the finisher’s gong after I crossed the finish line. I collected my finisher’s medal – a 12″ serving fork! And I signed into the race log book where I entered my time of 4 hours 1 minute 0 seconds. Years ago, I would have been more disappointed that I didn’t break 4 hours but not this year. I was happy to run! I was happy to finish! And I’m already thinking about the next one!
Slow and steady wins the race
Hope all is well with the Stretched Community!
How was your Thanksgiving? How did you counteract the calorie intake?
Thanksgiving Saturday! Week In Review…
Another week went by with a blur. I worked on Monday, but I was off the rest of the week. My family visited NYC where we had a chance to see Ground Zero, Times Square, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, F.A.O. Schwartz, Mary Poppins, and The Hard Rock Cafe. I also ran a marathon on Thanksgiving Day. We’re back home now, and we’re getting ready to eat our turkey dinner.
It was a somewhat slower week on the blog which I’m attributing to the holiday week. Nonetheless, I’m thankful for all of you who stopped by and left a comment or just checked things out. Monday’s post was a tribute to our daughter, Hannah, who celebrated her 14th birthday last weekend. Tuesday was a quick post indicating that I needed a break. Wednesday’s post paralleled my upcoming marathon with life’s journey. Thursday, I shared our family’s Thanksgiving tradition of being thankful, and I gave a quick update on the marathon. Friday finished things off with a fun Ice Breaker about Black Friday. Check these posts out if you missed something this week.
Again, I just wanted to thank each of you for your contribution to the blog through comments. It’s a real blessing to get your ideas and thoughts through this Stretched Community! I just wanted to remind you all to take the take to Subscribe to the blog, so you can have Stretched delivered daily to your e-mail inbox. Also, don’t forget to stop by the Jon Stolpe Stretched Facebook fan page. Become a fan to keep up with some additional Stretched stuff. Thanks!
A few of my favorite posts from the rest of the blogging community this week:
- Top 9 Books of 2011 by Michael Perkins on The Handwritten
- Getting the perfect gift for the blogger you love by Ben Reed on Life & Theology
- Harvest Your Budget by Alex Humphrey on Entreprelife
As I look forward to this week, I’m sure I’ll be sharing some reflections on our recent trip to NYC. I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. Until then, I’m enjoying time with my family. Happy Thanksgiving!
How about you? How was your week? If you’re a blogger what happened over your way this week? Did you read any great blog posts this week? Share with the rest of us!