Cozi Blog

Clutter Free in 2009

We are pleased to welcome Laura Leist to the Cozi blog. Laura, CPO is an organizing and productivity consultant, speaker and author of the best-selling book Eliminate Chaos: The 10-Step Process to Organize Your Home & Life. Based in Seattle, Laura is the founder of Eliminate Chaos and the President-Elect of NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers). Laura is also partnering with Cozi on our current promotion. Just sign-up and try Cozi before February 4th and be entered to win an in-home organization makeover by Laura!

Have you signed up for your free Cozi account yet?  If not, what are you waiting for?  Just think, you could be the winner of an in-home kitchen or home office make over with me – just for signing up!  January is the time when so many of us set resolutions for the new year and ‘getting organized’ always ranks as one of the top five resolutions.  It’s no surprise really, since living and organized life has so many benefits.  When you’re organized, you will feel less stress, less overwhelmed and you will save time and money.  Wouldn’t you like to experience these benefits?  Imagine how much easier it will be to make quick meals when your kitchen is organized and you know what’s in the pantry.  You can even use the customizable lists in Cozi to keep your list of groceries and access it from your phone.  Can you picture what your office would look like if there were no piles on the desk or floor and you could retrieve any information or document you needed in a matter of seconds?  Stop dreaming….this can be a reality for you and I want to help make this dream come true for you.

The lucky winner will have the opportunity to experience my 10-step organizing process that I document in my book. I will take you through these steps to organize your kitchen or home office and then you will have the steps and skills you need to tackle future projects in your home on your own. What are you waiting for? Get started today on a room or rooms in your home you've wanted to organize. To help you get started, I am offering a FREE copy of my tips book: Eliminate Chaos in Your Home ($7 value) with the purchase of Eliminate Chaos: The 10-Step Process to Organize your Home & Life. When you place your order for the book, I'll include the tips book for you. Armed with these tools, I wish you all the benefits of living an organized life in 2009 and beyond!

-- Laura Leist

Neck ties for Father's Day?

Does anyone still give neckties for Father's Day anymore? Whose idea was that anyway—that something meant to wrap snugly around the neck was the perfect way of saying, "Thanks, Dad, for everything you do"?

Dads sometimes get a bum rap, on TV especially. Too often, they’re made out to be forgetful and easy to trick by anyone over the age of 5.

This doesn't sound like any of the dads we know. We know of one who blocks out time in his Cozi calendar for his two daughters. It's sacred. No one can shanghai him with early-morning meetings; this is when he and his kids make lunch together and talk about their days.

We know of another dad who takes his infant daughter to work with him, because he has the kind of job where you can do that, and his wife doesn't. He never complains—except on those days when the baby is home sick. He misses her.

And then there are all the bike-riding lessons. The teams they coach. The ways they teach their daughters and sons what it means when the box says "some assembly required."

Our favorite kinds of dads, though, might be the ones who never appear in the photo albums. Those dads have a good reason for it: they're the ones taking all the pictures. Someday, when the kids are grown and they look at those albums, they'll have a perfect view of Dad. Not so much what he looked like, but what he saw when he was raising them. In so many ways, that's an even better picture.

So on Father's Day, here's to all the dads out there. Yes, sometimes you might get the lamest presents in the world, but what’s really being said with all those neckties is thanks. The most important ties aren't the ones in the gift box. They're the ones that bind families, forever.

Happy Father's Day!
- The Cozi Team

An ode to moms on Mothers Day

I have 4-year-old daughter who recently stamped her foot and said, "I'm never going to have kids!" She meant this in a complaining kind of way, as in, "It's taking me forever to grow up."

When she's a teenager, I fully expect her to say, "I'm never going to have kids." That's a totally different kind of emphasis, and definitely a thought that crossed my own mind when I was a teen doing the sort of thing I knew would give my mother a case of the conniption fits.

My 4-year-old is my second child, and she's gone from infant to preschooler so quickly I've hardly had time to blink. This not-blinking thing explains why I have such huge bags under my eyes. It's also helping me see why the days of motherhood go so slowly, and the years, so quickly.

We do a ton of stuff! We receive no vacation, no salary, no benefits! In fact, the only money in this job is the money we spend!  Good gravy!

And yet…

And yet, we love it. We love making the sandwiches and driving the carpools and folding the teeny-tiny pairs of socks. We're better people for having less time and money to spend on ourselves; we suddenly know what really matters. Most important, our hearts are lighter when we're carrying children in them.

Here's to mothers, everywhere. We rock!

As our present to you, we're giving the gift of laughter. Just check out this hilarious song about moms and all they do, by Anita Renfro - she nails it!

Happy Earth Day!

Question: What is the free, online, family-oriented web service that eliminates the need for millions of pages of paper, hundreds of thousands of sticky notes, and thousands of paper lists?

Hint: This service is also used to coordinate countless carpools, schedule eco-friendly activities for families all over the country, and simplify the lives of busy families so they can focus on the more important things in life, like the environment.

Answer: Cozi, of course!

That’s right. Cozi is the free, online service you know and love that helps families simplify their busy lives. In the process, Cozi also helps the environment by eliminating the need for millions of pages of paper that would have gone into the old-fashioned paper calendars that Cozi users no longer need. Most paper wall calendars aren’t even recyclable because of the waxy coating used in their processing, increasing their environmentally-unfriendly effect. Thanks to Cozi, hundreds of thousands of families have gone paperless with their family calendars!

In addition to eliminating the use of so many paper calendars, Cozi’s ability to create multiple shopping lists and to-do lists online has eliminated the need for hundreds of thousands of sticky notes and thousands of paper lists. Of course, Cozi’s main mission is to help families simplify and organize, but Cozi’s earth-friendly focus helps families take steps in a green direction.

Top Ways Families Use Cozi to Go Green:

1)      Use Cozi lists to help eliminate paper lists and sticky notes.  Calling for your lists or having them sent by text to you will help eliminate unnecessary printing. 

2)      View your family’s schedule, instead of printing it.  The few lists or calendar views you need to print will still be a small fraction of what most families use.  If your family needs schedule reminders, try using Cozi’s broadcast message feature.

3)      Recycle paper from the lists or calendar views you do print.

4)      Use Cozi to organize carpools with other families, or to track a car share within your own family.  Whether your carpool efforts include one neighbor or your son’s whole soccer team, Cozi can help facilitate this environmentally-friendly driving option.

5)      Use the Cozi Calendar to schedule earth-friendly events or activities. Whether it’s a one-time event like an Earth Day festival, or an ongoing activity like participating in a local creek clean-up once a month, Cozi will keep track of your green efforts, and reinforce an ongoing focus on the environment in your family.  Don’t forget to add in “Ride Your Bike to School Month” in May! 

If you have other examples of ways that your family uses Cozi to go green, please let us know, either here or on the Cozi discussion board. We’d love to pass along your ideas. In the meantime, Happy Earth Day!

National Mom's Night Out

Who doesn't need a break? If you are a Mom, you probably raised both hands at once. That's why I created a new holiday, for all of us over-worked, under appreciated Moms. "National Mom's Night Out!" is Thursday, March 20th and it's a guilt-free excuse for Moms to go have fun with friends. Skeptics (read: "husbands") might argue and say, "You already have a holiday for being a mom...it's call Mother's Day." I would answer them by respectfully pointing out although we do celebrate being Moms on Mother's Day, we do so as a family. We go out to brunch with our kids or go see a movie (probably a cartoon) with our children. This is all well and good, but nowhere on that day do we get a chance to recharge and reconnect with who we are besides being a Mom. National Mom's Night Out is an opportunity to have us reclaim a bit of our pre-motherhood identity. It affords us the chance to take off our sweat pants and strap on some sexy heels and go have a good time. (Perhaps trade in our baby bottles for a wine bottle for at least one night.)

Although the third Thursday in March is the official "National Mom's Night Out" I am hoping that Moms across the country carve out time for themselves on a more frequent basis. We need to land somewhere near the top of our own "To do" lists to ensure we are recharging our spirit. Making time for yourself may seem selfish, but taking care of number one makes if possible for you to take care of the rest of your family more effectively.

So, set the laundry aside and leave money out for your kids to order pizza and come join me for the National Mom's Night Out!

By Rachel Hamman

Creator, National Mom's Night Out

Meet Sharon, Mom of 4. She has Cozi running on 6 computers and 2 laptops!

Every day we get wonderful emails from many happy Cozi families. Everyone here at Cozi enjoys reading them. After reading some recently I couldn’t resist picking up the phone to speak with some of our customers to hear their stories.

I spoke with Sharon in Lakewood, Colorado. Sharon is a software engineer. She and her husband Kim, a pastor, are the parents of four children: Christine, 21, Shauna, 19, Steven, 18 and Rachael 9. The older daughters are both in college in the Denver area, live at home, participate in family activities and help out with family life all while going to school and working full time. The family even has a tab in Cozi for Christine’s fiancée Jason!

Here’s how Sharon’s family uses Cozi: Their Cozi calendar often has 5 to 10 things a day on it as everyone is busy, busy. Sharon says it is such a relief to have given up her handwritten calendar. She used to spend hours transferring information from one week to the next using colored markers to represent each family member. Now she enters reoccurring appointments just once in Cozi and they show up in the family calendar each week like magic. In the past family members called home hoping to catch Mom so she could check the one central calendar. Now her kids check the family schedule from the school computer lab or their own laptops. They are also dedicated users of the Cozi shopping lists and have lists for grocery, wholesale/warehouse, technology and discount stores. Everyone pitches in and helps with the shopping and driving. Even youngest sister Rachael likes to type in “marshmallows” and “hot chocolate” to the family shopping list. Sharon says that Cozi has “truly changed their lives” and of course we feel just great about that.  I’m really glad I called.

How Much For Halloween?

My kids start thinking about their Halloween costumes before Labor Day, and have gone through a dozen favorites by the time school starts. That’s no surprise, with costume displays appearing in some stores right after the 4^th of July, and costume catalogs arriving in the mailbox shortly after!

Halloween has definitely arrived as a major holiday, both in the level of excitement among kids and the level of spending among adults! In fact, the National Retail Federation (NRF) reports that Americans spend more than 5 billion dollars on costumes, candy, cards and decorations. That’s up more than 51% from two years ago! NRF also estimates that more than 2/3 of Americans celebrate Halloween in a way that involves retail purchases, and each American spends about $60 each on Halloween!

Each year when we head to the Halloween store to pick out a costume, I vow that I’m not going to go overboard, but it’s so hard! There are so many fun decorations, and the kids love decorating the house with spooky bats and spider webs. It’s also hard not to spend too much on the costumes, especially since so many of the elements are a la carte. For example, when I agreed to the “street mime” costume for my oldest son last year, I didn’t realize that the shoes, the wig, the gloves and the glasses were all extras! The initial cost of $30, became $60 before I could say candy corn.

This year I decided to try a new tact. After looking at the costume catalogs with the kids and checking out the retail locations, it looked like the usual cost for a costume was around $30, plus accessories. I told the kids that I would give them each $30, and they could spend as much of it as they wanted on a costume, but whatever they didn’t spend, they could keep. The results have been interesting.

My 4-year-old stuck to his dream of being a Scorpion Ninja Warrior, and he’s already gotten “his” money out of it from his repeated wearings around the house, to the grocery store and to pick his brothers up from school. I’m thrilled that he’s thrilled with the amazing costume he chose all by himself.

However, his brothers are older and have made different choices. Despite having pored over catalogs and the internet for months to settle on the perfect costume, they have now both decided to come up with something from the costume trunk and pocket the $30 for other spending. I’m proud of them for the choice, applaud the creativity they’re showing in piecing together their own costumes, and feel better about them spending the money on other things. Of course, it would have been great if they had gone in that direction without the monetary incentive, but the power of Halloween marketing is as potent as a witch’s brew!

How much do you spend on Halloween? How much do you spend on costumes for the kids? What do you think about the increase in Halloween spending? Is it all in good fun, or do you think it’s too much? I guess we can all be glad that Halloween isn’t a gift giving holiday, at least beyond M&Ms and Starburst!

Look for the poll regarding how much you spend on Halloween costumes and let us know where you fall on the spectrum!

Family Fun Nights!

For the past year or so, our family has tried to keep Friday nights saved for a family game night. Some weeks it’s worked better than others, with sleep-overs, sports events or birthdays occasionally taking priority. In general, though, we’ve kept to the Friday night game night, and it’s been a blast!

With kids of different ages (4, 7, and 10), we’ve been challenged to find games that work for everyone, and sometimes, we’ve split into two groups within the family. The best nights, though, have been those where we’ve found games that spanned the ages. “Apples to Apples Juniors” made us laugh so hard our faces hurt, and charades was so funny my 10 year-old actually fell off his chair laughing.

With so much fun being had, we know we are on the right track in carving out a special family night where we can talk, laugh and connect after a busy week!

I’m curious what other families out there are doing along these lines. Some families I know have movie nights, where the family picks a movie that works for everyone, and the family snuggles up with popcorn and Skittles.

Other friends have a ritual of going roller skating every Friday night, and others go bowling. What rituals does your family have for fun and bonding? If it’s game night, what games are fun for your family? If it’s movie night, what movies have worked for the whole family? If it’s something else, it would be fun to hear about it!

Also, how do you keep the evening free? Do you block your family night off on the calendar, or do you just remember it? Are you flexible if something else comes up, or does family night trump all other activities? Is it the same night each week, or is it any night that works?

Whatever the activity or the timing, it’s clear that setting aside fun times for families to connect is fun and memorable! I treasure our fun family nights, and feel lucky that the kids look forward to them, too! Too soon, they’ll be doing more on their own, and we want to enjoy our time with them while we have it!

Thanks for sharing your ideas for family fun! It will be great to share great ideas, and to hear how family nights work for your family!

Traveling Abroad with Kids

An interesting article recently explored the question "How old should kids be before traveling abroad?" It seems the answer is "it really depends on your expectations." Parents who are planning ambitious trips, seeing historically or culturally significant sights that they'd like their kids to remember forever are probably best off waiting until they're at least seven. If the aim is to immerse the kids in a different culture and instill an early sense of curiosity and wanderlust, it won't hurt to take them even earlier... just be prepared to curtail your own adult enjoyment of the trip as necessary to accommodate naps, temper tantrums, and diaper changes.

It's a timely question for my family, because we are about to embark on our own trip-of-a-lifetime, two weeks in and around London to sight-see and participate in the frenzy that will surround the release of the seventh Harry Potter book. My kids are seven and nine, and both so excited already they can hardly sleep!

This is our first time traveling out of the country with them, not counting Canada which for us is just a quick drive north and painless border crossing. We've got their passports, we've planned an itinerary that is full of possibilities but flexible enough to allow some flow and spontaneity, we've researched with them some  things they'd like to do and see. They love the travel that we've done in the U.S., and can't wait to get on the plane with their new rolling backpacks.

Still, I'd be lying if I said there weren't a few nerves mixed in with the excitement. Between the long flight (and inevitable jet lag), the niggling worries about potential terrorist attacks (and grand-parental jitters on that issue),  and the knowledge that no matter how well we plan or schedule, stuff happens and we'll need to deal with it, it's certainly a different experience than traveling with other adults.

But that's all part of the adventure, right?

This week's poll question touches on the issue of travel, as will the site of the week. And we'd love to hear from you... what are some of your favorite travel stories? Any travel tips with kids you'd like to share? Planning, or already returned from, any grand adventures on this summer?

Cozi Teams Up With Alex's Lemonade Stand!

Alex’s Lemonade Stand is a wonderful foundation devoted to raising money for pediatric cancer research. It is named after a young girl named Alex, who had cancer, and put together a lemonade stand to raise money for other kids with cancer. Unfortunately, Alex is gone, but her legacy lives on in this organization founded by her parents. Each year, hundreds of their lemonade stands are held around the country, raising money for pediatric cancer “one cup at a time.” To date, the foundation has raised more than 10 million dollars for pediatric cancer research!

Recently, Cozi was lucky enough to be a part of one of Alex’s Lemonade Grandstands in Seattle in honor of a five-year old boy named Antonio, a cancer survivor who has been in remission for two years. Antonio and his mother hosted the event, which was covered by local television and radio stations and featured a visit from Squatch, the mascot for the Seattle Supersonics! What fun it was to see Antonio sitting on Squatch’s shoulder with a huge smile on his face as he made three baskets in a row!

Cozi hosted a booth at the Grandstand event, and will be supporting Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation with two more booths in Seattle this summer. To learn more about Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, or to find out about hosting a lemonade stand in your neighborhood, go to www.alexslemonade.org Or, for more information about Cozi’s support of Alex’s Lemonade Stand, please contact: marian@cozi.com