I'm a full-time mummy

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews since 2014 and what more with baby #4 on the way this end of year, all the more I need to be particularly picky and selective with the products that I'm reviewing. Not that I'm trying to be hard sell, no, definitely not! But with 3 kiddos + 1 on the way, being a housewife at home with kiddos all the time and helping out with hubby's business, I just feel it is not fair to make companies and PR reps wait for my reviews while I slowly review and look for time to spare to draft out my feedback you know? But of course, like I said, I have to be selective, so products that we can definitely fit into our family dynamics (especially books on parenting or homeschooling stuff, family products, something along those genre) will be accepted!

Recently, I received an email asking whether I would be interested to review the latest products from BROS (yeah, the famous water bottle brand) I was like 'Hey, let's do it!' I mean, hey, who am I to say no to BROS? They are famous for their BPA-free, eco-friendly, reusable and recyclable bottles!

About the company:

"Proudly developed and manufactured since 2004, BROS reusable water bottles set the trend through superior quality, innovation and better design. Committed to better health and the environment BROS encourages more people to get hydrated. BROS is distributed nationally and regionally by Living Wing Sdn Bhd.

Every bottle in the BROS series is made to be durable with safe and eco-friendly materials, providing a compelling alternative to single-use, disposable plastic beverage containers. A fun and stylish way to keep hydrated while reducing plastic waste!."

I received the BROS Mother’s Day Gift Set (which is a bundle of the Mother and Child bottles) for my review. Here is how it looks like in its packaging (box a bit crumpled due to transit):

So kawaiiii!!! I mean, so beautiful!!! What more with purple being my favorite color and pink being our girl's favorite color! Awesome possum!!!

Here's a closer look of how the water bottles look like. A brief info on this Mother's Day gift set - both BPA-free water bottles are from the Crystal series, 350ml in size and were inspired by simple yet precious memories made with someone we love.

In this scenario, it’s the walk home from a little girl's childhood memory of grocery shopping with her mother. That was her fondest memories. Although it might seem insignificant to others but the warm presence of her mother lingers in the mind of the daughter till today.

Even though I am a mother myself now, I still cherished my childhood memories when I followed my late mum to the morning market to have our breakfast whenever we were back in her hometown during school holidays. After all, don't you agree that the most treasured memories are the ones made with someone you love? Our 4.5 years old girl is so happy with her special pink water bottle with a picture of a little girl (she said 'Awwww the little girl looks just like me!!!') and she feels special to have her own special set of water bottle alongside with mummy!

Thank you BROS for this wonderful and precious memories you created for my little princess and myself!

I'm also very grateful for the additional water bottles that we get, especially for our 7 years old boy and our 2.5 years old girl.

What a nice touch and extra thoughts! Wonderful company that cares about the extra little things!

Do check out http://www.bros-store.com/ for more choices and details.

As a token of appreciation to my awesome readers, BROS generously extended an additional 10% discount for the Mother's Day gift set. All you have to do is simply enter the code FTMUMMY10 at the checkout to enjoy the offer. Please note that this offer is valid from April 15 to 8 May only so do hurry up!!! Also, I don't get any commission or referral fees from doing this. I'm just sharing this in case you plan to get any Mother's Day pressies for the awesome mums in your life :D

Take note that the discount code is applicable per person per checkout. If you purchase 2 Mother’s Gift Set in a single checkout (one Order ID No., one invoice), both gift set will be entitled to additional 10% off. BUT if you purchase 2 Mother’s Day Gift Set separately in 2 different checkouts (two Order ID No., two invoice), only one gift set will be entitled to additional 10% off. You will not be able to utilize the discount code on your second purchase (2nd invoice).

Also, from 15th April to 8th May, the first 50 online orders of this lovely water bottle set will come with a personalized message.

This is the awesome sketch by BROS in-house artist of my humble little family!

Do note that I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

I have been sharing some of my favorite angpow pieces on an angpow collectors group in Facebook and some members have been telling me to continue sharing my memorable stories and so I thought, why not write it down, that way, our kiddos can read about it when they grow up next time, eh?

For those of you who are not familiar or never heard of the words 'Angpow' (also known as 'ang pau', 'ang pao', 'angpau'), here is a quick definition:

Angpow = Red Packet (filled with cash inside) given during festivals

So for today's angpow story, it comes from this piece of lovely angpow:

The moment I see the motorcycle on the ap, it reminded me of my late dad's motorcycle. It was not the same Suzuki brand (my dad owned a Yamaha bike) but it looks very similar.

Ever since I was born, the bike has been in the family. I can't remember how many times dad repaired the bike but he had to, we are not rich to get a car etc. I remembered in late 90s, dad used his savings to pay for a second hand Iswara when my older brother got his license - that was the 1st car in our family. Yet, dad maintained his faithful old bike.

I remembered the stories dad told me about his bike. How it saved his life back in the 60s during the riot times. Dad told me how as he was riding his bike away from his office, he saw people chasing around with parangs trying to attack and hurt others, whoever within reach. Thanks to his bike, it saved his life. He made it back home safely.

I remembered sitting at the front part of the bike where the petrol tank was located at. I was 7 years old and insisted to tag along with my parents to the morning market.

I remembered how dad got into an accident when I was in my early teens and it hurt him that his bike was damaged as well but he managed to save up his money to repair it bit by bit.

I remembered as I got older and looking at my parents riding away after I got on my school bus to school in the wee hours of morning.

I remembered when I started doing part-time sales promoter job at 16 years old during school holidays, dad would fetch me back home with his bike from the back lane of Metrojaya Bukit Bintang Plaza.

I remembered when I was working part-time at the souvenir shop during my college year and dad fetched me back home everyday at 6pm with his bike.

I remembered the times we had to squeeze through the traffic jams and was amazed at how dad managed to sverve left and right to avoid hitting the cars and busses around us.

I remembered the times when I got stranded with my dad at some shoplots when it rained suddenly and we had to take shelter from the heavy rain.

I remembered the few times we braved through the rain on the way home (in highway, no chance to stop for any shelters) and how his raincoat will flap over my legs and I tried to cover his back as well with my windcoat.

I remembered to look of 'we made it home!' during these occasions.

I remembered the looks of admiration from other bikers as we all waited for green light and people were asking my dad about his bike.

I remembered the bike was unique from others, dad's bike has 2 long exhaust pipes while the newer modern bikes has 1 exhaust pipe only.

I remembered seeing how proud dad was with his bike. It was old, antique and in running condition. How can one not be proud of it?

I remembered dad telling us how people offered his lots of money for his bike and he rejected the offers.

I remembered watching dad wiping, drying and cleaning his beloved bike.

I remembered even as my dad started getting too weak to ride on his bike and he asked my hubby (then boyfriend) to start and warm up his bike every now and then to make sure it is still in running condition.

I remembered how sad I was when my dad passed away, the bike was left downstairs at our government flat motorcyle parking bays where it has always faithfully been parked at.

I remembered the sadness and regret that we never bothered to take up motorcycle lessons and exams.

I remembered the anger and fury as I see the tires and some main parts of the bike got stollen days after dad was cremated.

I will never forget how I cursed the thief and hope they rot in hell for doing this despicable acts.

I remembered regretting my cursing as I realised as a Christian, revenge is not ours to take and we should never ever curse at anybody no matter how.

I remembered praying that the person(s) who stole my dad's bike parts will make good use of the parts and the money will be able to support their family in need. That is the only thought I can think of to console my broken heart.

So many memories of that bike... Of my dad... Of my childhood... Of alot of things...

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

I'm blessed to be able to experience the power and magic of Intel® Core™ M processor in our Acer Switch 12 device as it means we get the best of both worlds - a laptop and an ultra-fast tablet useful for our family. I had previously written about how we make use of technologies to parent, educate and learn together as a family, shared our family's guidelines on technology usage for our children and even recommended some favourite Windows apps and utilities and games for the family as well as shared how I use Microsoft Edge as a teaching tool for our children.

For today's post, I will share with you some of my favourite Windows 10's tips and tricks. Here we go, the list in no particular order:

Customizing your Start menu

I owned a Windows phone before so customizing the Start menu on my Acer Switch 12 device is a familiar thing for me. Anyway, the steps are very simple and you just need to press/click on the related tiles, drag and drop to wherever position you want the tiles to be.

You can right click on the tiles to resize it, turn the tile off, pin it to the taskbar or uninstall the app. You can arrange all your favourite apps and games and software according to your liking.

Schedule your restarts

Another tips I learned for Windows 10 is to schedule my computer restarts. What it means is if you have any pending updates that require you to restart your computer, Windows 10 will allow you to schedule a specific time or date for it to do so. You just need to go to the Windows start menu, select 'Settings' go to 'Update & Security' and choose 'Windows Update'.

You can schedule your computer to restart at a time that you don't usually use your computer, say in the wee hours of the morning or you can even specify a specific date! Coolness!  

Record A Video Using Windows Game DVR Function

In April 2015, Microsoft introduced the Game bar to Windows 10 as a means for recording gameplay sessions on computers. As it turns out, you can also use the recording function as a screen video recorder for other apps (do note that it doesn't work with every app). You just need to press the Windows button on your keyboard together with the 'G' key and you will see a small window prompting you 'Do you want to open the Game bar?' Check the box and you can play around with the available options.

I haven't personally tried out recording anything yet but am definitely keeping this nifty little trick in mind as someday, I might let our 6.5-year-old boy try it out since he loves to watch Minecraft game tutorials. Maybe I can let him try out recording a Minecraft tutorial on his own hehehe...

Solitaire is Back!!!  

I had originally wanted to put this under my recommended Windows games post but decided to hold it off and leave it for this post. Reason being, it is a neat trick that I learned to summon back this beloved game! One of the earliest Windows game I ever played on my first computer and being able to play it again now! Pure awesomeness! You just need to search for 'Solitaire' in the search field and you will be able to see this game again! You are welcome!!!

Manage Your Notifications 

If you are tired of getting notifications, this tip is a must for you to try out! To manage your notifications settings, go to Start menu, select 'Settings' followed by 'System' and 'Notifications & actions'. Feel free to turn on/off whatever notifications you would or would not like to be prompted on.

Battery Saver 

If your battery is running low, Windows 10 is smart enough to begin throttling back background services and other threads so that you can squeeze the last bit of battery life out of your device. To enable the Battery Saver mode, click the Start menu, and head to 'Settings', 'System' and choose 'Battery Saver'. You can set your device to turn battery saver mode automatically if battery level falls below certain percentage, allow or disallow notifications from any apps while your device is in battery saver mode, lower the screen brightness while in battery saver mode and even set which apps to still be allowed to run in the background and send/receive notifications despite being on battery saver mode.

So there you go, some of my favourite tips and tricks for Windows 10. I hope my sharing is helpful to you guys!   

Btw, Microsoft & Intel are currently running a contest where users who purchase a brand new participating 2 in 1 PC can stand a chance to win RM500 shopping vouchers! You can find out more about the promo at: http://www.makemagic.my/500promo

In the meantime, you can learn more at the Make Magic website. 

Make magic. Every day.

#makemagiceveryday

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.