Pieces of Pietz

  As the new school year takes off, so does about a million other things! The days grow busier and busier as the year draws to an end with shorter days and bustling holidays. It creates a need for me to save as much time and energy as possible. My favorite time saver is meal prepping. With a big family of seven, it’s more of a ‘must-do’ than an option. I set aside time every Sunday to meal prep for the upcoming week. That time is well spent when the hustle and bustle of our daily schedules gets overwhelming! Just grab a freezer meal and pop it in the oven or microwave, viola! This is especially true for our mornings. There’s a ton of chores that need to be done around the homestead first thing and that leaves little time for cooking up a big breakfast every day. Instead, I started making these freezer friendly breakfast meals that are both quick and filling! These first few recipes are all variations on breakfast sandwiches. You can change the meat, veggies, or any ingredient...

  My favorite season is upon us! Soon, the air will be filled with scents of autumn; wood burning stoves, crunchy leaves, apple cider, pumpkin spice, cloves, and crisp cool mornings. The leaves put on a show enticing us to drive to the mountains and take family photos. Fall break means a family mini trip, followed by Halloween, football games, and Thanksgiving. Bonfires fill our weekends and cookouts in the backyard. Did I mention it is my favorite season?! In honor of my favorite season, I want to share some easy fall simmer pot recipes that will fill your home with the comforting scents of autumn! Now, I am a candle burner, but sometimes I want to be able to have a fragrance fill our home without having to worry about, you know, pets or kiddos knocking it over, or forgetting it's burning and possibly catching something on fire! The way this year is going, I've been taking extra precautions! But first…. What is a simmer pot? A simmer pot can be best described as any po...

  I’m sitting here this morning with a cup of coffee in hand, surrounded by the silence of an empty house (now that the kiddos are back in school), flipping through my project journal and feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the notations inside it reading ‘half-complete’ or ‘delayed’. When we bought our home three years ago, I had a vision in mind to update this eighties style split-level into a modern family farmhouse. Now I’m gazing around at the grey walls and unpainted trim wondering if that’s still the direction I want to go. The problem is, I’m not sure what my design style is or for that matter if I ever had a particular style to begin with. Of course, I love farmhouse décor, mixing old and new elements together, that is something I have always done. Yet, mixing those pieces together in a cohesive manner to make our home flow has never been my strong suit. Usually, all the stuff just looks thrown randomly around the house without a purpose or intention of adding to my ‘style’. ...

  Okay, I just gotta share my latest obsession with y’all, and I admittedly am behind the game on this one! I’m not a complete novice to couponing, but I am far from an expert, so I hope I explain this correctly or if y’all have any tips – please share them in the comments below! Here it goes – do you shop at Dollar General? Are you like me, living in a small rural community where we might not have a Target or even a Walmart, but we do have multiple locations of Dollar General stores in multiple sizes? Do you like saving money on everyday household essentials? Do you avoid using paper coupons or just forget them on your shopping excursions? If you answered yes to any of these questions – this is the post for you! I was recently introduced to digital couponing via a friend. She is a pro at saving money, anywhere, but she knew that I wasn’t a fan of couponing. I told her years ago I had a coupon club that me and fellow moms would get together and exchange coupons, scenarios and a...

  It’s been several weeks since my last health journey update and y’all, I am pretty sure I was on the verge of a breakdown. After my aunt passed away, a host of family emergencies and personal obligations all fell into my lap at the same exact moment, making my brain swell and overload. I had to stop everything, took a day to process it, got my big girl panties on and sucked it up. I’m grateful to say everything is more even keel (at least for now) but I must admit, there is a pattern that even I can’t deny; When things feel out of my control, I let my emotions consume every other part of my life and that is my biggest downfall. That old saying, 'You are your own worst enemy' is inherently accurate. The 75 Hard Challenge proved to be more than I was ready for and after restarting three times in two weeks, it was obvious I wasn’t ready to commit. Scratch the challenge, for now, I need to work on breaking some habits that were less than stellar for helping me achieve my goal...

  Back to school means back to busy schedules and juggling all the exciting things the new school year will bring. Often, it also means eating on the go - between practices, recitals, and school events. After last year, our system of meal prepping went out the window! With everyone being home all the time, I found myself doing less planning and more “I don’t care what you eat, as long as you eat.” Sounds terrible, right? I’m blaming it on pure exhaustion. After cooking more than I have ever cooked in my life, I was running out of ideas and energy. Four kids, a picky-eater husband, and one tired momma hanging on by a thread thanks to coffee and energy drinks – it was a mess. Thankfully, we are starting to see a light (at least, we think) and I’m choosing to focus on that! For me, I have learned that the more prep work I can do to make meals ahead of time, the more likely I am to actually cook, haha! My crockpot is my saving grace. I have learned to make some delicious meals in i...