There are several Etsy sellers who are now offering items that will have a portion of their profits donated to Haiti relief funds. If you are an Etsy shopper search for the key word "Haiti" to see all the great products available as charity items.

Through the end of February (and maybe longer) all of my items in the shop will have half of their gross profits donated to Hearts with Haiti's earthquake relief fund.

Shop responsibly, shop with a cause.

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As you may recall, we decided late in the year to challenge ourselves to funding a family vacation in Texas.

We made some strides and things were looking pretty good. Heading into November, we were beginning to believe that we could pull it off. Well, that was not quite the case.

We were funding this vacation all on extra income - not out of the family budget. By mid November, we were seeing that reaching the $1300 goal just wasn't likely.

That's when the Mrs. hatched Plan B.


Texas was out of reach, but we had to get out of Dodge. It wasn't much warmer than Michigan, but a long weekend in Indianapolis would provide ample opportunity for the family to get away. Here is what we did:

• Dinner and candle-lit Christmas tour of Prairie Town at Conner's Prairie.
  
• An afternoon of fun at the Indianapolis Children's Museum including the Barbie Exhibit.
• Shopping, goofing off, and a dip in a wonderfully heated indoor pool.

After 3 days of family fun we were glad to hand the kids off to Grandma, and go celebrate our anniversary.

Sure, Texas would have been nice - very nice. But the girls still had a great time. In fact our six year old kept going on and on about how spoiled they are. It's things like that, those little statements and smiles, that remind you that sometimes it doesn't take much. You don't have to spend a lot to get a lot. And really, it was more about us, and the season than it was about what we were doing and where we were going.

Have you ever felt like you failed only to find that maybe you had the wrong definition of success?

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With our 2010 goals posted, it sorta felt like we forgot something....
Oh yeah! Our 2009 goals.

Here's a quick look at what was and what wasn't for 2009:

1. Participate in company 401k up to the match - Easily accomplished with a slight adjustment
2. Refund My Roth IRA - it was around mid year that we got our investments overhauled and re-prioritized retirement over college saving.
3. Fully fund 529s for both our daughters - And that's where the money ran out thus far. Had pay raises not been suspended for 2009, this would have been no problem.
4. Car replacement fund - got robbed. But hey, I mean - roof vs. car, car vs. roof. We needed a new roof.
   

It's always good to remember - you can't do everything. You don't know what a years time will bring your way. These were good goals, and the latter two won't be going away. In this crazy economy, I'd say we did pretty darn good.

How did your 2009 goals shake out? Did the economy shake you? Or was it something else?

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