Just Another New Blog

I discovered goat milk soap about three years ago. I was hooked right away. Since then, my day just does not start off right without a bar of this creamy goodness in my shower. I just HAVE to have my fragrant, gentle, wonderful goat milk soap. The company responsible for my soap revolution is called Goat Milk Stuff. I just know when I am getting their amazing soaps in the mail - as soon as I open the mailbox, wonderful scents hit my senses.

Goat Milk Stuff is a family-owned business in rural Indiana. The Jonas Family has 8 children, and everyone pitches in to help. PJ and Jim Jonas started making goat milk soap because they wanted to avoid using chemicals on their children’s skin. Today, they offer quality soap in a variety of scents, as well as bath accessories, soy candles, laundry soap, gift sets, lip balms, lotion, sugar scrubs, and shaving products.

Watch the video below to see the Jonas family in action.

Natural goat milk soap is appropriate for all skin types and safe for babies. People with dry and / or sensitive skin - like me! - will love this gentle, moisturizing soap. I've read testimonials that those with eczema, psoriasis, acne, or rosacea find a welcome relief using soap from Goat Milk Stuff. Personally, goat milk soap is the best kind of soap I've ever used, and it has become a necessity for me and my kids.

Goat Milk Stuff bar soaps contain raw goat milk, saponified natural fats, and natural and essential oils. There are no chemicals, and no skin irritants. The soaps are available as full-size bars, half-bars, and travel size. You can save some money when you buy an entire three pound log of the wonderful goat milk soap. Their wide selection of soaps includes special soaps for shaving, washing pets, scrubbing off odors, thwarting poison ivy, exfoliating, and chasing away bugs.

The bar soaps come in over 40 intoxicating scents. I've tried about a fourth of them, and I love every single one. I place the bars I don't use at the moment in my linen closet - they make my bedding and towels smell really nice. I even leave a small soap next to my computer, so I can enjoy the scent while I am working. Of course, the soaps from Goat Milk Stuff are more than a wonderful scent. They don't irritate my skin, don't dry it out, and transform my daily shower into a spa experience.

The soaps produce just the right amount of creamy lather, and leave my skin delicately scented. The Oatmeal, Milk and Honey was my first favorite. I've enjoyed Tea Tree, soap with a clean scent made with lots of tea tree essential oil. Tea tree is antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal, in case you are wondering how it can help your skin. Rosemary Mint is another refreshing, invigorating soap that smells like a breath of fresh mountain air. Mimosa Mandarin - a delicious smelling soap, I can't get enough of it. I've also tried their Harvest soap scented exclusively with essential oils, the summery Honeysuckle, and the delectable Pink Sugar. Whatever your scent preferences, I am sure you can find something you love at Goat Milk Stuff.

I always keep a few good lip balms around, so I was excited to try the Vanilla Lip Balm from Goat Milk Stuff. My lips love this lip balm just as my skin and my senses love the goat milk soap. The balm leaves my lips feeling soft and smooth. It's made with beeswax, cocoa and shea butters, vitamin E and oils. The Goat Milk Stuff lip balms do not contain any chemical preservatives and come in five flavors, plus unscented.

Last but not least, Goat Milk Stuff pack their soaps in reusable cotton drawstring bags. The bag keeps the soap’s scent for a while even after the bar is removed. It is stamped with the company name on one side and the fragrance on the other. Goat Milk Stuff have outstanding customer service, too. They ship most U.S. orders promptly via Priority Mail, so my yummy soaps arrive quickly and are never lost in transit.

I highly recommend Goat Milk Stuff soaps. They are the perfect addition to any spa-themed gift basket and would make a much-appreciated teacher or hostess gift. Just in time for Valentine's Day, Goat Milk Stuff have chocolate soap! Mmmmm, two of my most favorite things - goat milk soap and chocolate... Genius! It is limited edition, made especially for Valentine's Day, so grab it now - when it's gone, it's gone. Just make sure your family does not mistake the delicious smelling soap for fudge...

Connect with Goat Milk Stuff on their blog, and via Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.

Deal Alert
Goat Milk Stuff is giving my readers 10% off with discount code JANB10! Shop to your heart's content - because everyone deserves great soap. The promo code is valid until the end of February, so hurry and stock up.

The Giveaway
One lucky reader will win a $25 gift certificate to Goat Milk Stuff!

To enter, please follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter form.

* If you can't see the form, please refresh your page, make sure Javascript is enabled, or try another browser.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received free product samples for review purposes. No compensation was obtained for this post. The review reflects my personal opinion and may differ from yours.

Got giveaways? Please do share! You can link any family-friendly giveaway here weekly to promote it. My Saturday linky is below. Please include prize and ending date, and link directly to the giveaway page.

Looking for more blogs hosting Saturday giveaway fun? Visit Aleks at Busy Working Mama and Kristi at Mom's Own Words. Good luck to those who enter, and everyone else - enjoy browsing!

It’s no secret that I love shopping online. I like having the convenience of products available at my fingertips, any day, any time. I can shop in my pajamas.  I can look around for the best deal without leaving my house. I don’t need to drive anywhere, wait in line, or chase my kids around the store. I don’t have to analyze ten different computer configurations and spend time agonizing over my choices – only to discover that the one I want is not in stock – unless I want the one on display.

I do a lot of my online shopping on Amazon. It all started with books, obviously. I discovered that I often get the exact same titles for about 30% less than at the local bookstore. My preference for buying books online goes beyond price. A new book is a new book, consistently the same in look and quality, whether I buy it at the bookstore around the corner, in New York City, or on Amazon. In addition, the selection on Amazon is much bigger than what I can ever find at a brick-and-mortar bookseller. Recently, my daughter started reading the books in the Mallory series. There are 17 titles from which our local bookstore carried two. I took her to another bookstore and found a single Mallory book. Just to compare – Amazon has 8 of these books in paperback and 9 in hardcover. The paperbacks are eligible for their 4-for-3 promotion, and there’s no sales tax.

I love a good deal just as much as I enjoy online shopping. Frugal Dad, a site dedicated to helping the average family save money, gets that. I often go to Frugal Dad and try to find a promotional code before shopping at Amazon. The site lists a variety of deals that are a great starting point. Even if I am just browsing – looking for gift ideas for my husband whose birthday is coming up, for example – I like seeing all the deals listed in one place. Should I get him the Wagan IN9738-5 12-Volt Heated Seat Cushion that’s 50% off right now? Or save up to 80% in the Amazon watches clearance? He loves movies – so, thanks to Frugal Dad, I know that I can save up to 60% on select HBO favorites. He mentioned he needed a new notebook. Frugal Dad tells me I can save $150 or more on select Sony VAIO SA-series laptops. Sweet! Now if I can just narrow it down to one gift…

As a teen, I wanted to see the world. Travel was my dream, and two destinations topped my wish list: Venice and Australia. I was fortunate to visit Venice in my 20s but not Australia. I still find this continent utterly fascinating. The sixth largest country in the world. Ten thousand beaches. Kangaroos, koalas, emus, dingos, wallabies. Outback deserts, tropical rainforests and snow-capped mountains. The Great Barrier Reef, Aboriginal people, more than 25,000 species of plants. I wanted to see it all - still do.

Pop culture and books gave me even more reasons to visit Australia. Nicole Kidman, Judy Davis, Heath Ledger, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Errol Flynn all hail from down under. Kylie Minogue, INXS, and The Bee Gees are Australian. I watched Crocodile Dundee, Dead Calm, The Thin Red Line, Mission Impossible 2, and I read and re-read The Thorn Birds.

I would love to take my kids to visit Australia when they are a bit older. Planning our dream vacation would be fun! Luckily, travel information is easy to find online. Travel.com.au is one of Australia's oldest travel websites, and one of their areas of specialization is international flights.  International airfares for the whole family are expensive, so finding cheap flights is important. Then we'll think about where to go. There are so many places I want to see in Australia that narrowing it down to something realistic will be difficult. I'd want to visit Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra, but also see the whales, the beaches, the outback, the amazing national parks. Decisions, decisions...

Disclosure / Disclaimer: This post was brought to you by our friendly advertisers. Photo credit Australia.com. The opinions and experiences are all mine.

After we got married, my husband and I rented an apartment. When I got pregnant with my daughter, we decided it was time to move. We picked a neighborhood, drove around, looked at houses. Finally, we found just what we wanted. Moving from a one-bedroom, we did not own lots of furniture. I got some moving estimates but at the end, we did all the packing ourselves and rented a small U-Haul. We also recruited a few close friends who had more experience with moving than we did. I was nine months pregnant, so I needed all the help I could get.

Fast-forward a few years. Now we have kids and own much more stuff than we did back then. We also have a much bigger place. Should we need to move again, I'd seriously consider hiring local movers. Did you know that the average person moves about 11 times? That's a lot of work. In case we have to move out of state, I would definitely get professional help and hire long distance movers. Moving the entire household is stressful enough: new jobs, new schools, new neighborhood, new friends... Just get some local moving quotes, find a good company within your budget, and take a significant chunk of the stress out of moving. For me, it would be worth every cent.

If moving is in your near future, check out Movers.com. There you can find information on top moving companies, movers, and moving services, and even get a free moving quote. Whether you are moving domestically or internationally, doing a corporate relocation or moving your student to a dorm room, you can plan your move, buy boxes and packing materials, and find the right mover - all from the comfort of your home. They offer a free moving e-book that can be downloaded from their site.

Movers.com is accredited with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). They are a member of the American Moving & Storage Association (AMSA), a non-profit trade association established in 1936.

Disclosure / Disclaimer: This post was brought to you by our friendly advertisers. The opinions and experiences are all mine.

Last year, I posted a review of Long Drive Home. Now Will Allison's remarkable book is available in paperback - and it's a book club pick for February from Simon & Schuster! We are celebrating the new edition with a giveaway! If you've missed my review, check out the synopsis below.

Book Description
In Will Allison’s critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, a happily married man makes a split-second decision that sends his life into a devastating tailspin.

Life can change in an instant because of one small mistake. For Glen Bauer, all it takes is a quick jerk of the steering wheel, an impulsive move intended to scare a reckless driver — not kill him. But when Glen realizes no one saw the deadly accident, he lies to the police, to his wife, even to his six-year-old daughter, Sara, who was in the backseat at the time of the crash. As his wife’s panicked plan to save their family instead threatens to tear it apart, Glen can’t help wondering: What if the accident wasn’t really his fault? What if someone else were to blame? Struggling to understand the extent of his own culpability, Glen finds himself on yet another collision course, different in kind but with equally terrible potential.

Long Drive Home is a stunning cautionary tale of unintended consequences that confirms Will Allison’s reputation as a rising literary talent.

The Giveaway
One lucky U.S. reader will win a copy of Long Drive Home by Will Allison!

To enter, please follow the instructions of the Rafflecopter.

* If you can't see the form, please refresh your page, make sure Javascript is enabled, or try another browser.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Description
“I wasn’t prepared for the enemies. Had I been as gorgeous as a supermodel, or as rich as an heiress, or an actress with an Oscar to my credit, people would still not be happy that I had Henry’s attention, but they’d understand. What they resented was the king coupling with a ‘nobody.’”


Skirts may be shorter now, and messages sent by iPhone, but passion, intrigue, and a lust for power don’t change. National bestselling author Carol Wolper spins a mesmerizing tale of a twenty-first century Anne Boleyn in ANNE OF HOLLYWOOD.

Wily, intelligent, and seductive, with a dark beauty that stands out among the curvy California beach blondes, Anne attracts the attention of Henry Tudor, the handsome corporate mogul who reigns in Hollywood. Every starlet, socialite, and shark wants a piece of Henry, but he only wants Anne. The question is: can she keep him?

Welcome to a privileged world where hidden motives abound, everyone has something to sell, and safe havens don’t exist. With her older sister Mary, a pathetic example of a royal has-been, Anne schemes to win her beloved Henry in the only way that give s a promise of forever – marriage. Success will mean contending with backstabbing “friends” Henry’s furious ex-wife, and the machinations of her own ambitious family, and staying married to a man who has more options than most and less guilt than is good for either of them will take all her skill.

Anne will do anything to hold on to the man - and the lifestyle - she adores, even if sticking your neck out in Hollywood means risking far worse than a broken heart. With Henry’s closet confidante scheming against her, and another beautiful contender waiting in the wings, Anne is fighting for her life. Can she muster the charm and wit to pull off her very own Hollywood ending?

My Thoughts
What would be the story of Anne Boleyn if she lived in the 21st century? Ms. Wolper's new book attempts to answer that question by placing a modern-day Henry Tudor, Anne Boleyn, Mary Boleyn, Catherine Aragon, and Jane Seymour in the "kingdom" of Hollywood. Intrigue, fickle passions, politicking and power abound. Anne is different, complicated, and certainly stands out - but we already know how the story ends. Thankfully, no real heads are rolling in Anne of Hollywood.

Anne of Hollywood is an entertaining look at history revisited, new this week from Gallery Books.

Disclaimer / Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of the book with no obligation for a positive review. No compensation was obtained for this post. Cover art and book description courtesy of the publisher.

Book Description
THE GRISLY SUSPENSE AND HEART-STOPPING DRAMA OF Camilla Läckberg’s acclaimed debut, The Ice Princess, catapulted her to the #1 spot on bestseller lists in Europe and around the world. Now, in her second installment in the series that has sold nearly ten million copies worldwide, the Swedish crime-writing phenomenon returns to the tiny fishing village of Fjällbacka, where a series of unsolved murders have lain nearly forgotten for a generation — until the sadistic killer suddenly begins claiming fresh victims. As the town erupts in panic, detective Patrik Hedström and his pregnant girlfriend, Erica Falck, find themselves launching a desperate manhunt to track down the true murderer before another life is lost.

In the harrowing, spellbinding tradition of the best Scandinavian thrillers, The Preacher ruthlessly cuts to the bleak heart of human evil, revealing that narrowest of lines between fear and forgiveness.

My Thoughts
I have not read The Ice Princess but The Preacher is a bone-chilling mystery where hideous crimes are in stark contrast to the characters' ordinary lives. Ms. Lackberg's narrative is addictive, with a clever plot that keeps the truth hidden until the very end. I enjoyed her well-drawn characters and her portrayal of small-town Sweden.

The Preacher, new this week from Free Press, is one of Camilla Lackberg's seven books, all set in Fjällbacka where she grew up. Learn more about the author on CamillaLackberg.com.

Disclaimer / Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of the book with no obligation for a positive review. No compensation was obtained for this post. Cover art and book description courtesy of the publisher.

In my daughter's class, there are kids with serious allergies. Peanuts, tree nuts, gluten... Before every celebration, parents are reminded to respect these dietary restrictions and bring safe treats. With Valentine's Day coming up, I came across a great option that everyone can enjoy: Lucy's Cookies.

Lucy's Cookies are deliciously crispy treats that are gluten-free, and contain no peanuts, tree nuts, milk, or eggs. They were created by an M.D. who happened to be the mom of a child with severe allergies. She came up with cookies produced in a carefully controlled bakery and tested for trace amounts of milk, eggs, gluten, peanuts and almonds. These cookies are made with all-natural ingredients, including some that are organic. They are vegan, non-GMO, and have zero trans fats and cholesterol.

We sampled three new flavors of Lucy's Cookies: Maple Bliss, Chocolate, and Ginger Snap. All three varieties are very tasty, with a satisfying crunch and pair perfectly with a glass of milk (soy for those with lactose intolerance). My kids are now "addicted" to the Maple Bliss cookies. The chocolate ones come in a close second. The Ginger Snap cookies have a little bit of a spicy taste that makes them a grown-up favorite at my house. I never knew that real ginger, lemon and a tiny tad of chipotle spice could be so irresistible.

Lucy's Cookies are available in four other flavors: Chocolate Chip, Sugar, Cinnamon Thin, and Oatmeal. You can find them at over 7,000 stores across the U.S. and Canada, as well as online.

The Giveaway
Three (3) lucky readers will win a Lucy's Cookies prize pack, including a box each of  Maple Bliss, Chocolate, and Ginger Snap cookies!

To enter, please follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter form.

* If you can't see the form, please refresh your page, make sure Javascript is enabled, or try another browser.


a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received free product samples for review purposes. No compensation was obtained for this post. The review reflects my personal opinion and may differ from yours.

When I first started blogging three years ago, my blog was a blogspot. It was easy, straightforward, and free. I did not give much thought to web hosting until I had been blogging for a couple of years. By then, my little blog had grown a bit, I had faithful readership, and even my Google Page Rank was a respectable 4.

At that time, I was beginning to devote significant time and effort to my site. I started running into opportunities that were NOT for any blog with a blogspot, wordpress, or similar extension. Obviously, a dot com was the way to go. I was not a programming pro, so I wanted something uncomplicated. But where do I host my domain? What's the best blog hosting? I asked my friends around the blogosphere - where does your blog live? Should I switch to Wordpress? Was your transition easy?And, more importantly - was it worth it?

So, I was full of questions. At the end, I went with Google. There were no major hitches although I had to do some extra work on feeds, widgets and deal with other irritating details. I changed my blog design. Six months later, I am quite happy I took the plunge. While not a 4 yet, my Google PR is up to a 3, after spending quite some time on a big fat zero. My only regret is not switching to my own domain sooner.

Disclosure / Disclaimer: This post was brought to you by our friendly advertisers. The opinions and experiences are all mine.