The Refreshingly Normal Podcast with Kēfla and Cree

Love doesn’t need a prix fixe menu to feel unforgettable. We open the door to our 22-year marriage and invite you into the real stuff: how we keep connection alive with tiny rituals, why budget Valentine dates can be deeper than dinner out, and the exact exercises we use to stay on the same team when life gets loud.

We start with music—slow jams, nostalgia, and the surprising way a single song can flip your mood from scrol...

Ever been told to “I'm just gonna chill” on Valentine’s… then see your person dressed to the nines at a five-star spot? We go there. From flurries and fatigue to pricey roses and no-reservations panic, we unpack the messy middle where love, logistics, and common sense actually live. We start with real wins—scoring free emotion-regulation tools for educators—and then ask harder questions about how we teach rejection, whether te...

The forecast says ice, but what we’re really tracking is how people act when life slows to a crawl. We kick off with practical storm prep—charging devices, wrapping pipes, backup heat, and smarter grocery runs—then pivot to the kind of relationship truths that only show up when the roads are closed and the Wi‑Fi is iffy. From laugh-out-loud “Believe it, sister” stories to hard-won lessons on boundaries, hygiene, and equity at home,...

A lash tech, a box of cheesecake, and a plan so bizarre it could be TV—our opening story turns a casual catch-up into a masterclass in paying attention to your gut. From there, we move through the joy and grind of school life: patient math help, energetic environmental science, and what it takes to lead adult trainings that actually change classrooms. We share how to set student teachers up for success, why letting interns into rea...

Let’s talk about the kind of love that doesn’t need a filter—the kind that makes dinner together, leaves sweet reminders in the rush to work, and chooses repair over winning an argument. We open up about why “normal” gets a bad rap, how perfectionism sneaks into everything, and what to do when your relationship feels more routine than cinematic.

We share concrete ways we reconnect when life is heavy or just plain boring: d...

What if the new year didn’t demand a whole new you, just a clearer, kinder version of who you already are? We kick off 2026 by choosing “enhanced you,” and the conversation flows from real-life flu season tactics to identity-building habits and the courage to show love on purpose.

We start with a family check-in and practical health talk, why quarantining early, visiting urgent care, and considering a one-dose antiviral li...

Holidays can be cozy, chaotic, and clarifying and ours had all three. We kept the menu simple, savored a dressed-up Costco smoked turkey, battled through musical cups with championship-level energy, and used the quiet to talk about what matters more than leftovers: respect, boundaries, and what we refuse to carry into 2026.

First, we unpack a story that stings: a woman’s dishes are ignored at her in-laws’ gatherings then e...

Bells, games, and real talk, this one feels like the living room after dinner when the stories get louder and the truths get clearer. We start with holiday week chaos; team charcuterie, dress-up days, and a White Elephant that actually makes sense, then dig into something deeper: how to support teens and adults in crisis without slipping into fixer mode. You’ll hear practical, compassionate tips for regulating emotions, honoring ag...

Holiday cheer meets hard truths, and we’re not tiptoeing around either. We kick off with the real work of easing burnout—especially for educators—by building a simple, repeatable plan you can stick with when your brain is fried. No perfection. No spiritual gatekeeping. Just short meditations, one-minute box breathing, and the honest practice of noticing, naming, and returning. Our goal: you leave lighter, not just inspired.

A season meant for joy can get loud with pressure, plans, and family politics—so we pulled the plug on perfection and built a holiday that actually feels good. We start with lighthearted banter about shopping days, hidden gifts, and that eternal real vs artificial tree debate, then shift into the real work of December: protecting peace, choosing boundaries, and keeping kids out of grown-up crossfire. As educators, we also unpack fi...

The rain started before sunrise and so did the stories. We drove 13 hours to Wichita for a week packed with caregiving, cooking, and a smoky casino that taught our teens more about odds than any math class. What we brought home wasn’t just leftovers, it was a sharper sense of what makes holidays work: clear boundaries, shared effort, and small rituals that outlive a single season.

We get honest about hosting in a small spa...

What if your retirement address was “somewhere at sea”? We kick off with classroom wins, a Spirit Week fashion misread, and a kid who kept checking if we’d moved from the same hallway spot—then steer straight into a wild idea: buying a cabin on a residency cruise and circling the globe for years. No cooking, no cleaning, nonstop ports. Tempting? We pull the dream apart with real questions about family ties, health, flexibility, and...

A single text and a church livestream blew the lid off a carefully hidden double life—and we walk you through every jaw-dropping turn. We start with the small inconsistency that sparked suspicion, then trace the calm, methodical investigation that followed: unopened mail with secret credit cards, receipts for trips and gifts, a holiday card from another family, and a decade of messages that confirmed everything. The harshest twist?...

Ever notice how stress sneaks into your house wearing different faces—short replies, nitpicking the tiniest thing, or a sudden urge to fix what’s right in front of you? We open up about how we each show stress, why clutter can spike anxiety, and how we’ve learned to spot the early signs before small sparks become big fires. From the social script that tells Black men to “man up” to the habit of masking stress with productivity, we ...

The week starts with small comforts—a heavy hoodie, calm kits for families, rain on the windshield—and quickly widens into the bigger work of care. We swap stories from busy school trainings, a slow nail salon day, and the kind of teacher compliment that fills a bucket at just the right time. Then we open up about a real health scare, the stats around Black men and preventive care, and what it feels like to navigate screenings, sci...

What if a week could be both tender and tough? We open with a restorative practices conference that felt like a genuine mindset reset—circles over punishment, dignity over discipline—and the very real need to decompress after days packed with heavy stories. That leads us into a candid look at sleep on the road: light leaks, hotel A/C quirks, anxious thoughts, and the small tweaks that finally make rest possible. Back home, we’re li...

If real life is a mosaic, this one clicks the pieces together: a cough finally fading, a yard trimmed to perfection, sauna small talk that turns into a debate on fasting, and the quiet victory of getting back to the gym. We trade everyday wins before shifting into the work that fills us up—Cree’s week of trainings, an unexpectedly vulnerable day with high school leaders, and a bright moment with gifted fifth graders building ADHD a...

A perfect-weather homecoming turns into a masterclass on what really sustains us—rituals that root identity, small alerts that protect our peace, and honest talks that make relationships sturdier. We start with the warmth of tailgates, band pride, and the funny near-miss of a fake valet in a brown sweatsuit, then move into an inheritance dilemma that hits harder than expected: a $1.8M house promised to a cousin’s grandson while a n...

A first grader hands a bus driver a note—“Call 911. My mom is being held hostage.”—and everything stops. We walk through what happened, why a quick-thinking adult matters, and the unglamorous systems that make help possible: routes, names, addresses, dispatch, and the calm to act when rules say “no phones.” That story threads into our life in schools—Kefla’s first IEP in a decade, the anxiety and pride of getting the details right,...