Not just meals: Family bonding goes beyond #DurathonFamilyRun

Families today spend less quality time together, contributing to negative youth development, poor family fitness and lack of family communication and trust. This is a growing issue because when there is a lack of family quality together time many youths get involved in risky and delinquent activities, family’s health and wellness is passed over and forgotten, and family's either do not trust one another or do not know how to work together as one.

‘Families that eats together, stays together!’- This quote has become far than redundant. With such a fast moving world, in fact, an individual eats one in every five meals in her car or commute vehicle/office desk, one in four individuals eats at least one fast food meal every single day. There is no time to sit down with your family and share a meal.

Apart from meals, however technology has created chaos and diminished family time, encouraging kids to make time for family participation is a way to guide them toward a lifetime of health and well-being. Families that play together, have fun together.

While there are countless ways a family can get bond together to increase strength and longevity, here are some simple suggestions on how to easily incorporate these methods into your everyday life.

Mandira Bedi will be there with her son Vir at the Durathon!

Set Timings & Goals -

Getting active together doesn’t have to be time consuming. Even 30-60 minutes, three times a week as a family can be beneficial. Maximize your time but keep it real to your daily routine and flows of your own family. Block out time after-school, after-dinner and at least one day on the weekend.

Create competition within -

Schedule your activities and keep a simple check list of what is being done and when. Doesn’t need to be a competition per se, just a little nudge on accountability. Though if a competitive edge is what gets your family motivated

Participate in competitions as a family -

Remember to a child the word ‘Love’ is spelt T.I.M.E, and the best way to spend the coming Children’s Day is by spending the day running together in bunny ears and having fun together. Duracell, the iconic consumer battery company is organizing the ‘Durathon’, Mumbai’s first family run; on Sunday, November 12, 2017. Just like the famous running Duracell Bunny kids and parents will have the opportunity to show how they can go stronger for longer as they unlock their inner power when finishing together a 2K or 5K run. Durathon is a lovely platform for every family to come together and increase bonding.

So why not think of getting your family to be heatlhiest and strongest? Register here - https://www.durathon.in/enter_ticketno 

A visit to the new #StudioPepperfryVashi outlet!

If you reside in Navi Mumbai, you will definitely visit Inorbit Mall in Vashi. And if you're around Inorbit Mall, you will not fail to see something new - a swanky new pepperfry studio that has just opened up on the occasion of Diwali!

The catchy entrance! Felt like sitting there and sipping some coffee.. :P

The sweet guys from Pepperfry called a few bloggers down to experience the studio and my were we impressed by how it looked! Every piece of furniture had it's own beauty, persona and charm - whether it was this rustic looking chest of drawers or a uni-cycle side-table that caught everyone's attention.

This store, being the 22nd Pepperfry Studio is the largest in Mumbai (And Navi Mumbai) and 2nd largest only to one in NCR. At Studio Pepperfy, you can come experience the quality, finishing and mix and match furniture to make your own style! And once you have found what you love, you log on and add to cart, there is no sales or delivery happening from the store itself - quite a unique concept.

Lovely map of all the Studio Pepperfry outlets around the country!

I have already wishlisted 4-5 furniture pieces that I will buy for the home! Do let me know via comments if you happen to visit the studio and what you loved out there the most! Check out some more pictures from the studio - 

All the products you see at the studio are listed under the studio name on Pepperfry's website, from where you can purchase it (and even discounts with coupons) and it'll be on it's way home to you! I quite loved their bohemian collection and checked them online -

Studio Address:

Studio Pepperfry, 11,12 & 13 Ground floor.

Haware Infotech Park. Sector No. 30A

Vashi-400703 (Opp Inorbit Mall)

Near Vashi Railway station.

Studio Pepperfry:

Pepperfry.com is India’s largest furniture and home products marketplace, that operates in categories across furniture, décor, bed & bath, furnishings, lamps, kitchen, dining, bar, housekeeping, hardware & electricals, garden and kids. 

“Studio Pepperfry” is a one of its kind concept store from Pepperfry.com, India’s leading online Furniture and Home marketplace. It showcases a curated range of furniture from the online portfolio of Pepperfry and serves as a design inspiration. At the Studio one can experience the cutting edge design, various types of furniture with different wood finishes and get an idea of the overall quality of the furniture from Pepperfry. Here interior design consultants assist in browsing through the entire Pepperfry furniture range. These experts additionally offer free in-store design consultancy on furniture products ensemble to furnish homes that that are aspirational while reflecting the latest and best in contemporary home design. A unique concept from Pepperfry it demystifies the furniture buying process and makes it a delightful experience.

Hatke Diwali With iDiwali - Your Learning Capsules - Review

Couple of days back, received one-of-a-kind kid's activity book in the mail, right in time for Diwali. It's called iDiwali and is by Vitamin Simple Unbox - Your Learning Capsules by Kajal Dharod. They're just newly into making activity books for kids aged 3-9, with the aim of educating kids and keeping them busy without the use of gadgets.

The cover design is smartly shaped like a smartphone/tab, probably to make the kids interested in opening the book. There are a series of activities ranging from stickers, colouring, etc in the order of Lord Ram's story. We all generally celebrate Diwali by eating sweets, bursting crackers, wearing new clothes and visiting relatives. But hardly do we ourselves remember and teach our kids the real essence of Diwali and story behind the festival of lights.

In-fact this activity book goes beyond telling just the story of Raavan's defeat and Lord Ram's winning, it starts from the very beginning when King Dashrath had 4 sons and goes on till Diwali celebration.

What I really loved about the book is that it is simple, engaging and a really great way to teach kids about our mythology. Imagine if this is how we could teach them history or geometry, they will actually enjoy learning.

The book captures the essence of Diwali really well, and is a great gift to your kids, niece/nephew etc. Specially in Mumbai the weather is so gloomy, it's raining and the kiddo is hence grounded at home - atleast he can enjoy the book! I also appreciate the small details like how there are extra stickers for every activity since kids could always make mistakes - so there won't be disappointments.
There are also extra activities like greeting cards, lantern, bow and arrow - which are great for some parent-kiddo bonding time!

You can purchase the book online, it's available at Rs.299 only! I am really glad that this is created by another mom, and a very much 'Made In India' product.

About the product - 

This Diwali, gift your 3-9 year old kids an enriching Diwali story experience with this new concept of an interactive story book. 10 chapters - Diwali interactive hands on story telling and eight Diwali experience activities - all packaged into one engaging book.

Engage with hands on activities - cutouts, stickers, coloring, flap cards and more...

https://www.amazon.in/dp/B075W3YPDP

PAYTM Rs 299 and your full name + contact number to 9819903276 and order today !

Fossil Hybrid Women’s Watch – Review

When I saw ads of the newly launched Fossil Q Hybrid series back in May-June, I loved the whole concept of a watch that looks like the good old analog but has features of the new-age smart watch. I told my husband jokingly to gift me this watch. Little did I know he’d actually do it! I mean it’s kind of expensive at Rs.13k something and I wasn’t celebrating any milestone birthday or anything.

He ordered it on Amazon and it was delivered a couple of days before d-day. The bracelet was a li’l too loose for me, and I found it difficult to get that fixed because I did not want to go to any random watch guy as I was scared the warranty will be void and the Fossil store closest to me didn’t have services after 6pm and I don’t leave work as soon.

Finally after my birthday, I went during my lunch break and got the bracelet adjusted to my size so that I could start wearing it. A lot of people have seen it and asked me if it’s worth buying, how it works as a smart watch when it looks so normal…so I decided to do a review on the blog.

1.  Aesthetics

Goes so well with my clutch-diary for meetings!

The watch is a gorgeous rose gold shade with a diamond studded round dial and diamond studded roman numbers inside. The bracelet already has scratches due to normal wear and tear like when I rest my hand while typing or writing, but that’s normal. The watch weights a lot more than a normal analog Fossil watch, due to the hidden mechanism to make it a smart watch. It will feel heavy on day 1 and then you get used to it.

2. Setting it up

Setting it up is easy, especially if you’ve used other smart watches. You need to first install the Fossil Q app on your smartphone and then pair the watch using Bluetooth. You can then set-up and customize as per your needs. The only flaw here for me was the sync time, it’s too slow…it can take minutes to sync or update changes. And what happens is that the phone sleeps before that, and on waking you need to start the sync again – so basically you need to keep the screen awake anyhow till the sync is done.

3.  Key features

The hybrid has 3 buttons which you can customize and set-up according to your preference. You can use these buttons to control music, click a picture, show the date, track goals and more. I use the camera, music and date features. You can also turn on notifications for calls, apps etc which basically make the watch vibrate. The more notifications you turn on, the more battery is consumed. I don’t like to be bothered by constant watch notifications, so I have it on only for calls, coz my phone is mostly on silent mode and I used to end up missing a lot of calls. (In the picture above we took this pic by keeping the camera and clicking a pic using the watch button).

What makes it special and why I love it –

Once you set a fitness goal, for instance 10k steps a day, and you meet the goal – it will vibrate thrice to inform you that you met your goal – it feels great to know that. I wish though they also had a notification when you have not met goals, to encourage you to push yourself. They also have a sleep tracker to tell you how much you slept, but I don’t use that because I remove the watch before sleeping. The most amazing thing though is unlike other smartwatches or fitness bands, you DO NOT have to charge this one daily/weekly/frequently. 

The battery lasts upto 1 year (depending upon your usage) and then you can visit your nearest store for a battery replacement, I am not sure if that is a free or chargeable service. After using it for 3 months my watch battery is at 70% (Indicated on my iPhone), so I am assuming it will last for 7 months more meaning 10 months in total. Also, it is water resistant (yes you can swim with it on) and you can also ring your phone to find where it is (for the endless times we don’t remember where we have kept it). It also has interchangeable strap facility, which I have not used yet as well.

Note – This is not a sponsored/paid review.

How to prep for the festive season - Parenting Tips for Toddlers

This year’s festivities have begun on a special note for our family. The kiddo, now a toddler has started understanding more and hence enjoys the festivals. Starting with Janmashtami where he became a Krishna and went to school and followed by Ganesh Chaturthi where he had Ganpati Bappa at home for 11 days and kiddo thoroughly enjoys shouting ‘Ganpati Bappa Morya’ and singing along during aarti time. We also took him to see the visarjan and his curiosity was only at it’s peak.

Since it's the festive season I thought I should share some pointers and child care tips on how to prep yourself (as a mom) and your kiddo!

1. Educate them in their language -

He asked my to draw Ganpati Bappa... 

They still don’t understand the concept of God. Mine will see any elephant photo and say this is Ganpati Bappa. We should explain the festival to them nicely in a way they understand. For eg. Tell them there are 9 goddesses we celebrate during Navratri (and also teach them to respect girls), or tell them how good always wins the fight against evil hence Dussehra is celebrated (and they should always be good and do the right thing) or celebrate Diwali by giving to the needy and poor also, apart from buying stuff for self.

2. Decking up –

Garba time!

We love seeing our kids in adorable Krishna costumes or Garba costumes or ethnic wear, plenty of options are available online or offline. Or you can rent a costume. I purchased some comfortable cotton/cotton silk kurtas from Fab India and usually rent costumes because you use them only once. But don’t force them to wear it completely, mine didn’t want to wear the mukut and all necklaces, wrist bands etc. I let him wear whatever was comfortable. The day you need to get them ready, before that in advance show them the costume and prepare them mentally that they have to wear it to school/home. Give them positive reinforcement if they cooperate and wear the costume the way you want.:) Being a mom, I prefer wearing light-weight, comfortable sarees/anarkalis myself with minimum work so that it’s not an hassle to run around the kiddo while dressed up.

3. Healthy is happy –

Long weekend spent well!

Imagine festival time with a sick kid! Any mom’s worst nightmare, you’ll probably not be in a celebratory mood anymore. Hence all precautions should be taken, give them plenty of fluids (use boiled water), use mosquito repellents by Good knight. I use 4 dots of Good knight Fabric Roll-On for outdoors protection from mosquitoes, since its 100% natural. 

While indoors, I make sure I switch on the Good knight Activ+ & keep my house and neighborhood clean with no stagnant water. If you see any dengue symptoms, take your li’l one or other family members to the doctor immediately, there are also many other airborne diseases that the kids could catch at school or while playing – so it’s a must to build their immunity by giving a healthy diet and supplements (if required).

4. Safety first –

Ganpati Bappa Morya!

Festivals means firecrackers, diyas, fairy lights, candles, etc. Be very careful with these things around the kids as they may want to play with them in your absence. Specially around inquisitive toddlers. Keep them away from kid’s reach and explain to them how they can get burnt if not careful. If going to crowded places, always hold your child’s hand or carry them in a baby carrier so that they’re not lost in the crowd, and keep your contact details in their pocket/bag.

5. Enjoy this time –

Obviously, enjoy these precious moments with your li’l one and family – whether it is playing dandiya/garba together, or getting together for a family selfie or enjoying good food and fire-crackers. Make the most of the holidays, keep work at bay and make such amazing memories and capture them on your camera to see in the coming years! Happy festive season to all, do comment with your tips too!