The Refine Blog

I can still remember my first negative body image thought. I had to have been in early elementary school and remember sitting down, looking down at my thighs pressed against the seat, and thinking that they looked fat. Had someone first told me something? Made a joke? Stated a dumb comment? I’m not sure. When […]

Probably my least favorite gifts to give are stocking stuffers, gift trades, and coming up with ideas for teachers, etc – not because I don’t love to give people gifts. I LOVE to give gifts! But I personally am not a fan of trinkets, clutter, useless items, or cheap things that will end up breaking, […]

I so dreaded the tween/teen phase around Christmas and birthdays b/c I thought they would be hard to shop for, but I’m actually finding that the past couple of years I have had a lot more gift ideas for my oldest daughter than I do the other kids. This seems odd, considering we are obviously […]

If you’ve followed me for a while, you may have noticed that I’m passionate about fair trade and am pretty intentional about the products I purchase for myself and my family, as well as for my home and pantry. Years ago I attended my first Noonday party and learned about slave and child labor and […]

When I work with moms in preparation for labor and delivery I always give this advice: “There are things in L&D that we can control, and there will be things that we can’t control. Let’s do our best with the things we CAN control.” I can’t tell you that you’ll totally avoid tearing if you […]

As I was helping my youngest get a dress on she stated with a smile on her face, “Now I’m beautiful!” I said, “Yes! But you were beautiful BEFORE you put the dress on. You are beautiful in whatever you wear, all the time!” And she simply smiled at me and we moved on. But […]

Earlier this year I shared a round-up of comfy and cute sandals for summer, and I thought it would be fun to share some shoes that I think meet this category for fall as well! As a PT, I’ve always been passionate about quality footwear b/c having well-supported feet not only makes our feet feel good, […]

I’ve had this recipe pinned for years, and I FINALLY made it a couple of weeks ago. It’s quintessential fall if you are into that sorta thing, 😉 it’s actually pretty simple, and it doesn’t make a huge batch, so you won’t be left with tons of leftovers, especially if you have 5 kids like […]

I’m sure most people can think of times in their lives that felt like a low, hard spot. If you haven’t, you may just need to live a little longer. 🙂 We aren’t ever promised a life without hardship. Though I can point to a few times in my life that certainly felt like low […]