What I Loved About January

The first month of 2015 is in the books.  Crazy huh?   I always picture the year as a pie cut into 12 pieces and I just finished a slice.  I don't know about you but my first month had a huge learning curve.  It wasn't the easiest month, but I learned a lot, lost a few pounds, found peace in some tough situations and embraced the moments that brought me joy.  Consider this a mini scrapbook of our January 2015.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love journeying through life with this man.  He is such a gift of strength & encouragement in my life.  We took this picture January 30th on our way out the door to celebrate a birthday with some fabulous friends at my new favorite Southeast Kansas restaurant, Ernestos.  Yes Ruthie...did you read that...my new FAVORITE!  Another fabulous memory "us" this month was when Dane came home with "Friday Flowers."  You know, flowers to celebrate the fact that it was Friday.   I love you Dane Wutke

The biggest part of our month was the Daniel Fast.  I shared a bit about this in the last post, but I think it defined January for me: it was hard but it was worth it.  I will never forget the moment we broke the fast together.  Yes we stayed up until midnight and enjoyed Papa Murphy's Pepperoni Pizza and a couple bites of cookie dough, then off to bed.  The next morning we sat down to a proper meal...breakfast and bacon (two sides of bacon if you are Dane) from Bob's Diner.

Our good friend Trent captured this picture.  We spent a few evenings with Trent before shipping him off to Brazil to study for a couple of years.  Together we got in some good games of Settlers of Catan, a few rounds of ping pong, and dreamed of our future trip to visit him for the summer olympics....fingers crossed!  You can follow Trent and his Brazilian adventure on his instagram page here.   Tell him the Wutke's say hi!

My latest big design project has been a webpage for our church.  It is ALMOST finished and I can't wait to share the link with you all here soon.  Until then...here is a picture from the homepage.

We had several beautiful days in January.  When I say beautiful, I am talking 75 degrees beautiful.  Meanwhile, the east coast was being hammered by 2 feet of snow.  I'll take walks outside and front porch sitting anytime I can get it during a January in Kansas.

There has been a lot of music playing in the Wutke house lately.  We have taken advantage of Dane's Christmas present, a record player, and picked up a few of our favorite artists on vinyl.  Michael Jackson, Bon Iver & the Killers.  After some record player tips in tricks (aka: taping a dime to the needle head) we are up and running.

Our nephew Corbin, celebrated his 1st birthday on January 21st.  The family all gathered together for the ceremonial "cake eating."  I can't even begin to explain the joy this brought me.  If you can't tell from the picture this kid likes cake like his aunt likes cake.  I've always believed you should never trust a person who doesn't like cake.  I cannot wait to enjoy year 2 with my favorite little buddy.

A few other moments to remember: We celebrated Christmas the first weekend of the month with the Bebermeyer family.  I really don't have pictures from that weekend.  Instead of holding my phone all of the time, I tried my best to be in the moment just taking it all in.  It was Corbin's first Christmas, and it was SO cute!

Dane has been overhauling a Fender Strat that a friend blessed him with at Christmas.  He soldered in a new pick up switch selector as well as made some other set up adjustments.  Just a few more steps and it will be ready to make its Dane Wutke debut!

I started a Bible Study with my good friend Tre called "Made to Crave"  It is all about approaching weight loss with a Godly perspective.  Girl, I think we are taking fabulous steps in the direction God would like us to go with our health.  Holding on to the truth that we aren't being denied but are empowered!

This & That:

Music We Listened To:
Dane: The Killers: Sam's Town & Elevation Worship: Wake Up the Wonder
Christy: Violents: Red Lights & Taylor Swift: 1989 (I just can't get enough)

Movies We Watched:
Dane: American Sniper & Fury
Christy: Labor Day & The Giver (you must see this movie!)

A New Treasures We Found Along the Way:
Dane: T1M Buffer for my guitar pedals
Christy: Dane bought me new Westone In Ears

Something New I Tried:
Dane: Spaghetti Squash.  I like it.
Christy: Switching my daily devotionals to morning.  Sets my day up right.

Books I Am Reading:
Dane: Bon Iver by Mark Beaumont
Christy: Made to Crave by Lisa Terkeurst & Divergent by Veronica Roth

See ya soon February!