Cozi Blog

Announcing: Cozi To Do Lists

To Do lists are now available in Cozi!

By popular demand, Cozi has launched a To Do list feature just in time for the busiest To Do list season of the year!

With all the lists you’ll need to write to prepare for your Thanksgiving feast, or to organize your holiday celebration, Cozi’s To Do lists could help you keep your sanity in these busy next few months. With To Do lists in Cozi, you can delegate a list of chores or tasks to each family member, and the list will automatically be assigned the Cozi color dot associated with that person in your family calendar.

If you’re winterizing your house this weekend, and want to assign “rake leaves” to your daughter, and “clean gutters” to your husband, it’s now easy to delegate these tasks with Cozi To Do lists. If your daughter gets sick, and you need to reassign her list to your son, you can do so with the click of a mouse.  As soon as you reassign the list, the color dot will change automatically.

With the new To Do list feature, you can keep even keep shared lists for tasks that your family needs to tackle together. For example, if the whole family needs to help clean up the garage to make room for the car now that snow’s on the way, you can add that to the Shared To Do list, represented by the All color dot in your family organizer.

It’s even possible to add categories within a list. For example, if you would like your Shared List to include categories, such as “THIS WEEK” or “IN THE FUTURE,” just enter these words in capital letters, and the To Do list will take care of the rest. If only the To Do list feature could take care of the tasks as magically as it creates the lists of the tasks!

Now that the To Do list feature is available, we need your help to give it a test drive and tell us what you think. So, take Cozi’s To Do lists for a spin today, and share your real-world feedback with us by sending comments to us here.

Fun Size My Life, Please

Dear Makers of Fun Size Candy Bars,

I am old. Middle aged, as one of my high school students told me two years ago, when I had significantly less gray hair and fewer wrinkles than I do today. A sign of how bad things have gotten: I now have bangs because my forehead looks like an elephant’s ankle. Every day is a bad forehead day, and I’m soon going to have to grow a beard to hide what’s happening with my neck.

Despite my age, however, I do remember the glory days of Halloween, when a child had to trick-or-treat carefully because of the razor blades in the apples and the LSD in the Mickey Mouse temporary tattoos. Both were urban legends, but hey! It was Halloween. The scariest day of the year (after school picture day). This sort of thing only helped the holiday live up to its terrifying potential. 

Back then, fun size candy bars actually were sort of fun. They were heavy enough to make the trick-or-treat bag/pillowcase bruise your ankles, and they were just long enough to seem like they could conceal something deadly.

Fun size candy bars today should be called dollhouse size candy bars. It’s not just my failing eyesight, here. These things are tiny. Lilliputian. My children are suffering because I have to steal two and three candy bars at a time to feel satisfied/protect their teeth/do my part in staving off the childhood obesity epidemic. By tomorrow, their trick-or-treat bags will be empty black holes collapsing in on themselves.

Meanwhile, so many other things in my life and the lives of other parents are now full size.

I’m talking about the size of the car insurance bill, which will now go up because of the minor fender-bender a certain beloved member of my household had last week.

I am also talking about the laundry pile, which, if it were a volcano, would be large enough to be classified as a federal emergency management administration hazard area.

And I’m talking about the parent’s to-do list, which keeps growing like a giant pumpkin. Just this week, I’ve had to track down flu shots and fill out legal waivers for multiple activities, one of which was a birthday party. We’re living in the fun size times of legal liability, flu pandemics and other horrors. Doesn’t it make you miss a good, old-fashioned epidemic, or even the simple elegance of a hidden razor blade?

So this is my request to you, oh makers of Fun Size candy bars. Instead of using your educations and talents to shrink one of life’s sweet pleasures, please direct your attention elsewhere. Make poverty fun size. Make wars fun size. Or, if you want to start really big, make my waistline fun size.

But please stop shrinking the size of the candy. My midlife crisis depends on it.

--Martha Brockenbrough

8 Essential Pots and Pans for Busy Families

Although I count 15 pots and pans in my bulging cabinet, nearly half of them are just taking up space.  Here are the pots and pans that I have found to be indispensable for making my family’s meals. (If you’re just starting out, or in very cramped quarters, you could get by with just numbers 1, 3, 5, and 6 below.): 

1. Large (10-12 inch) stainless steel skillet (also called frying pan): My All-Clad skillet, probably the best wedding gift we received back in 1994, is excellent for browning or searing meats, sautéing onions and other vegetables, and making sauces. It’s my first choice for sautéing unless I need a nonstick skillet.
2. Large (10-12 inch) nonstick skillet: A good nonstick skillet is vital for cooking eggs, making stir-fries, browning breaded fish or chicken fillets, or cooking anything else that may stick to regular cooking surfaces. I recently switched from Teflon coated pans that wear out after a couple of years to a more expensive but long lasting and exceedingly durable Scanpan cookware (made in Denmark) and I love it!
3. Small or medium (8-10 inch) nonstick skillet: Like the above, but this is great for making omelets, scrambled eggs, and other smaller and potentially sticky meals.
4. 6-12 quart stockpot (also called a pasta pot): essential for making pasta, big pots of soup, boiling lots of potatoes, and making homemade popcorn.
5. 3-4 quart stainless steel stockpot (also called saucepan): I use this beauty for steaming vegetables or rice or making small quantities of noodles. It’s smaller than the stockpot so I can pull it out easily for smaller jobs.
6. Small Saucepan: Look for a stainless steel saucepan, which is perfect for making small amounts of sauce, single servings of soup, and for melting chocolate.
7. Dutch Oven: This heavy duty pot, often made of coated cast iron, goes easily from stovetop to oven to table and can work well for making a roast, a stew, or soup.
8. Cast Iron skillet: This isn’t one of my daily pans, but it can’t be beat for browning steaks and pork chops-I use it like an indoor grill. If properly seasoned (don’t wash it with soap, dry it immediately, and rub it with a little oil on a paper towel occasionally), a cast iron skillet can also be used as a nonstick skillet.

I have found that it’s worth investing in good quality pots and pans that can really help us get great meals on the table and don’t need to be replaced often, if ever. For help choosing great pots, I recommend the kitchen store, Sur la Table, and/or using the product ratings and advice in Cook’s Illustrated and Consumer Reports.

Get your family organized and on the same page with Cozi, the free online family organizer.

More on Nourish
 
Aviva Goldfarb is a cook, author, and founder of The Six O’Clock Scramble (www.thescramble.com), a weekly meal planning system (recipes, weekly plans and automated grocery lists) to get healthy, earth-friendly, family-happy meals on the table each and every night. She can be reached at aviva@thescramble.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @thescramble. 

Candy Corn Games

‘Tis the season for that super-sweet candy corn that everyone can agree reminds them of Halloween past, present, and, most likely, future! Besides eating all of the candy corn that may be lying around your home this week, you can also play some fun and simple games with these bright candy kernels.

Send the kids on a Candy Corn Hunt. You can do this by creating a path of candy corn that they must follow to a surprise at the end, or by hiding small bags of candy corn around your yard and sending the kids on a traditional hunt.

Fill a large pumpkin pail with candy corn and ask the kids to Guess the Number. Whoever guesses closest wins! Share the candy corn with everyone.

Create Candy Corn Artwork with heavy card stock, candy corn, and a glue stick. This may get messy, but it will be fun!

Make Candy Corn Strings, just like popcorn. Decorate the room and front doorway with them.

Make Homemade Candy Corn. This is a great idea for older children.

Make Candy Corn Krispie Treats by adding candy corn to this favorite recipe.

Play Candy Corn Foosball. Have two kids stand at either end of a large table. One child throws candy corn to the other end of the table, and the other child must block it from going through and making a goal. Use a solid cookie cutter for blocking (making sure it is one that will not scratch your table).

Make Candy Corn Sculptures, using frosting to hold the sculpture together. (Make sure to place paper on your table to keep the mess to a minimum.)

Finally, send guests home with Goody Bags of the sweet stuff!

It may be corny, but these ideas will keep it sweet, too!

--Lisa Kothari, Peppers and Pollywogs

Last Call For Shutterfly Photobooks

If you’ve been meaning to get started on your discounted or free Shutterfly photobook from Cozi, now’s the time!

If you are a new Cozi family with a code for $10 off a Shutterfly photobook, your code is in the welcome letter you received when you created your new Cozi account. You may use this code for $10 off your 8 x 8 hardcover photobook from Shutterfly anytime between now and November 15.

If your family had a Cozi account prior to October 6, you are eligible for a FREE 8 x 8 hardcover photobook from Shutterfly. If you haven’t used your Shutterfly promo code yet, you have until November 15 to use the code, but your code will only be visible in your Cozi account until November 4.

To ensure that you have your code available when you’re ready to create your photobook, please copy and paste your code into Shutterfly from the link on your Cozi home page by November 4. After November 4, your code will no longer be visible in Cozi.

Once you add your code to Shutterfly, Shutterfly will keep your code for you until you're ready to redeem it, through November 15.

Enjoy creating your Shutterfly photobook, and enjoy using Cozi to simplify your family’s busy life.

Christmas Countdown 2009

Get ready for Christmas with a countdown of what to do each week. You'll be reminded, you'll be accountable, and you'll be confident that things will get done in time for Christmas. Here is a suggested time line, beginning the first week of November, to help you make this holiday season your best yet.

Let your calendar help you prepare for the holidays by putting all the Christmas countdown reminders on your Cozi Calendar. 

Week 1 – Holiday Gifts

Inventory the gifts you’ve purchased throughout the year. Sit your family down with catalogs to discover what is first on their wish lists. Create your own thorough gift list with space for each person you plan to make or buy gifts for. Don’t leave anyone off. You’ll cause stress if you have to make a last minute run for a forgotten gift for your child’s bus driver. Begin shopping online and in stores whenever you have a moment to spare.

Week 2 – Holiday Cards

Although this is a completely optional part of the holidays, many people find it the perfect way to stay in touch with friends and loved ones both near and far away. This week, focus on choosing a card or design, purchasing materials and stamps, scheduling a photo opportunity, addressing envelopes, writing an update on your family, and assembling the cards. Please keep in mind that nothing completes a holiday card like a personal note to each recipient.

Week 3 – Holiday Meal Planning

You can cover two holidays in one sitting if you take this week to make both your Thanksgiving menu and Christmas menu. Don’t forget any cookies, candy or food gifts you have planned for December. Gather all of your old family favorite recipes. Scan the internet for new possible food traditions. Once your menus are established, create a shopping list for each menu. Note which recipes can be made ahead and schedule baking days.

Week 4 – Cleaning and Decorating

With the American celebration of Thanksgiving this week, there will be a lot of home preparation as many people host feasts with their dearest friends, neighbors and family. Once the leftovers have run their course, it is time for Christmas decorations of all shapes and sizes to emerge from basements and attics. Vow not to put anything out until it has a dust‐free surface to rest. It is a good motivation for thoroughly cleaning your house in time for the holidays.

Week 5 – Holiday Party Planning

Whether it is a brunch, an afternoon tea, a cookie exchange, or an evening gala, many people find themselves hosting some type of holiday event. Guest lists must be made, invitations sent, menus created, activities scheduled, and a myriad of other details confirmed. This is the week to lay it all out on paper and begin to take action. Use this week to stock up on hostess gifts for parties you attend as well.

Week 6 – Holiday Happenings

Enjoy! The holidays are a fun time of year. There are special theatrical performances, seasonal activities, and family and community gatherings. Take it in. Experience the holidays. One of the rewards for planning ahead is the opportunity to relax a little and enjoy the celebration.

Week 7 – Holiday Giving

What are the holidays if not an opportunity to give? Yes, there are expectations from family members. Yes, there are traditions that must be carried out. However, if we forget that the meaning of the holidays is to give, whether it be through some sacrifice of our time, our abilities, or our resources, we forego the happiness that comes with giving. It truly is better to give than to receive.

Week 8 – Holiday Cooking

It may seem as though you’ve been cooking for a month straight by this time. However, there are few associations with special occasions as important as food. You’ve already planned the menu and the ingredients are stocked in your pantry and refrigerator. Now it is time to apply the magic of food to create mouth‐watering memories and continue traditions that have been passed down for generations.

The holiday season brings with it many associations and memories of family, warmth, joy and beauty. The reality is that it is also a time of busyness, anxiety, and stress. The key to a meaningful holiday is a little planning and a little more action. It is not enough to just think about what it takes to manage a successful family holiday. Scheduling time into your day to accomplish tasks early will bring the kind of peace to December that makes the song true: It truly is the most wonderful time of the year!

Let Cozi help you manage your family's holiday calendar, organize your holiday lists, and capture the chaos of the holidays with family journal entries.

More Lists and Calendars

More on the Holidays

Jennifer Tankersley is founder of ListPlanIt.com, with over 400 printable lists and planning pages, including everything you need to prepare for the holidays, manage a family, and organize your life. Jennifer is also the creator of 100 Days to Christmas: a daily dose of inspiration and motivation to help you through the busy holiday season.

http://www.typepad.com/site/blogs/6a00d8341ca8a653ef00d83452091869e2/post/6a00d8341ca8a653ef0120a64775f8970b/edit#

Sign Up For Family Journal Newsletters Today!

‘Tis the season for fun family events, and connecting with loved ones. Starting with Halloween festivities and ending with New Year’s celebrations, your family will undoubtedly enjoy hundreds of special moments—and take hundreds of family photos.

With all these photos and memorable experiences, there’s no better time to use the Cozi Family Journal. There’s also no better time to share your journal with family and friends in the family journal newsletter.

With the family journal newsletter, you can share the special moments and fun photos you’ve added to your family journal, without any effort at all.

Just sign up for family journal newsletters, and add the email addresses of the people you’d like to share with. That’s it!

Once you’ve signed up for newsletters, the people you’ve added will receive your newsletter automatically at the start of each month. You can add or remove recipients at any time simply by adjusting the settings in your family journal.

Only the new posts added that month will be included, so over the next few months, each newsletter will essentially be a holiday update of the fun events of the season. The October newsletter will be full of pumpkin-patch pictures and cute costumes. The November newsletter will feature the pictures of the kids in the Thanksgiving play at school, or maybe the Thanksgiving feast at Grandma’s house. December’s newsletter will be full of snowmen and holiday celebrations.

Wouldn’t your in-laws in Indianapolis love to see the cute pictures of your kids tromping through the muddy fields during your pumpkin-picking adventure? Wouldn’t your parents in Portland love to see the huge snowman with a top hat that your kids built after the big snow storm?

You might think you’ll remember these special moments forever, but they’re all too easily lost in the rush of new special moments that occur during this busy but wonderful season. And family and friends around the country won’t even know about these moments unless you share them.

Before these times are lost forever, just take a quick moment to preserve your memories with the family journal. Then, take an even quicker moment to share the joy of the season with your friends and family by including them in your family journal newsletter.

 

 

3 Things to Do with Halloween Candy Instead of Eating It

Halloween is on a Saturday this year, so you can bet it will be big. Instead of pulling tricks to reduce the amount of candy your kids eat, like trading it in for toys or simply throwing it away, put it to good use! Here are three alternatives to eating it all:

Decorate

Halloween is perfectly timed for candy recycling. Stash away an assortment of candy, or just the stuff no one likes, for November and December holiday decorating. Use the candy for decorating holiday gingerbread houses, making tree decorations, and adding special touches to holiday cards and wrapped presents.

Experiment

Did you know that you can use all sorts of candy to do science experiments that will amaze the kids?  Get instructions for making lifesaver lights, playing sink or float, getting the "m" off the m&m's, and lots more at candyexperiments.com.

Make a Teacher Happy

Teacher appreciation week doesn't come until spring. Show some appreciation now with an overflowing candy dish in the teacher's lounge! Or, maybe a classroom needs some supplies for their own decorating projects or experiments.

Get your family organized and on the same page with Cozi, the free online family organizer.

In Defense of Shouting

The most popular article at the New York Times last week was one with a title I couldn’t resist: For Some Parents, Shouting is the New Spanking.

Almost from the first, the story drove me nuts. After delivering a backhanded sort of praise about how our generation praises our toddlers for blowing their noses, the writer says, “incongruously and with regularity, this is a generation that yells.”

First, could it be any more obvious that the reporter has never chased a toddler with a tissue? Kids this age look at Kleenex as the Devil’s own hanky. So, yeah, it is not all that incongruous to holler, “Buford! Come back here! We have to wipe your nose! No! Not on the couch!” Any kid who submits deserves a “good job.”

Second, I am quite sure this generation did not invent yelling. Perhaps we feel guiltier about it, thanks to stories like these that on the one hand make fun of our efforts to be careful and engaged with our kids, while on the other hand point out how grievously we are failing to achieve that.

In my book, though, the silliest quote comes from the author of a study on the damaging effects of yelling, one Murray A. Straus.

“It affects a child,” he says. (Duh. That is the idea.) “If someone yelled at you at work, you’d find that pretty jarring. We don’t apply that standard to children.”

Yes, it is true that we don’t give children the same perks and treatment a grownup would get at work. For one, they’d have huge temper tantrums if you served them coffee from a vending machine. Grownups shrug and drink it anyway.

More to the point, children are not employees and families are not corporations. Not even nonprofit. It would be nice if they were, though. We’d get much better benefits and vacation packages. (Anything is better than zero.)

But if I were running my family like a business, let’s see....the first thing I’d do, after lobbying my local, state and federal government for massive tax breaks and grants to support my work, is write a policy manual, to be supplemented by intermittent company memos, that explained how things in our little family enterprise would run. I’d also write job descriptions, so everyone knew what their responsibilities were and could refer to them in times of trouble.

And of course, we would have a human resources department to ensure these standards were fairly and consistently applied. I even know whom I’d appoint for the job: the neighbor’s cat, the one who poops on our garden paths and sits on the porch blinking smugly at the dog.

I’d tack memos by the fridge, like this, using inappropriate quotation marks for emphasis just to keep it real:

MEMO: To all employees
RE: Milk

It has come to the attention of management that some employees are unaware of how to tell that the milk carton is “empty.” Employees put empty milk cartons back in the refrigerator and then leave the door open until the lettuce droops and the meat is warm enough to experience a “zombie resurrection.”

We will be holding a “mandatory” milk-carton-operation training session Friday in the break room. Anyone who fails the milk carton test will be subject to immediate outsourcing to a foster company. Plenty of orphans in India would gladly come to work for us.

P.S. Don’t even think about filing a discrimination complaint. Human resources is NOT happy about the milk situation and will not listen sympathetically.

Look, no one likes yelling. But there is a huge difference between regular, bug-eyed berating of your kids and the occasional burst of anger. The first is probably a sign that you’re trying to do too much and you’ve lost focus on what’s most important. Cut yourself some slack, lower your expectations all around, and you’ll feel a lot better. Kids who are yelled at regularly really do suffer.

The second? Well, a little “Looky here, Buster” now and then is how we show kids that there are consequences to doing the wrong thing—breaking well established family rules, picking on a sibling, ignoring a parent. Anger isn’t fun, but it’s something everyone experiences from time to time.

Not everyone shows it by hollering, but it’s not such a terrible thing to do so. If we don’t occasionally show kids how bad behavior affects others, they might grow up and be the kind of people who swipe your lunch from the company fridge without giving it a second thought. Maybe one reason yelling is not routine at work is that parents did their jobs.

Ultimately, there are just two things I wish for: that all families make it through the day without getting pushed to the breaking point, and that the money spent studying obvious things—like the unpleasantness of yelling in the home—instead were funneled to programs that actually made it easier to make it as a family in today’s world.

Even the neighbor’s cat agrees that would really be something.

--Martha Brockenbrough

 

Halloween Scavenger Hunt

It’s Halloween season again, the perfect season for a Halloween Treasure Hunt. Mike, Peppers and Pollywogs’ own poet, has created a great set of Halloween decoration clues to keep the kids on the hunt for their treats!

Here are the clues and answers:

Clue: If you find your next clue, I hope that you’ll grin. It’s under a vegetable that’s lit from within. Answer: Jack o’ lantern

Clue: Where’s the next clue? I think that I saw ... the last one holding it was made out of straw. Answer: Scarecrow

Clue: Some say I’m corny, but I’m also quite sweet. Finding the next clue will sure be a treat! Answer: Candy corn

Clue: I’ve got spirit, yes I do, but even when I’m cheering, I still say boo! (I’ll try not to scare you when you come for your clue.) Answer: Ghost

Clue: The “point” of your next clue is really quite eerie: the woman who wears me calls children “Dearie.” Answer: Witch’s hat

Clue: I’ve got a “bone” to pick with you. It’s about time you come and get this next clue. Answer: Skeleton

Clue: By eight hairy legs, I have been spun. If you can find me, your clue will be won. Answer: Spider web

Clue: Boil, boil, toil, and trouble. Come get your next clue, on the double! Answer: Cauldron

Clue: With my body of wood and feet made of straw, I’m the strangest flying vehicle that you ever saw! Answer: Broomstick

Clue: My body is black and my legs count four. Some say it’s bad luck when I cross the floor. Answer: Black Cat

Clue: You’ll be green with envy over the bolts in my neck. I may have your clue; why don’t you come check? Answer: Frankenstein

Happy Halloween hunting!

--Lisa Kothari, Peppers and Pollywogs