T-shirt in the Swimming Pool

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Today was the first time that I did a spin class in over 15 months. According to my watch, my heart rate went up to 192, averaging at 176, and I burned 646 calories in 52 minutes. I wasn't even pushing myself super hard so that kind of gives you an idea how out of shape I am. Due to potential complications and some pregnancy scares early on in my second pregnancy, I decided to skip the gym and just do light exercises like walking. My friend who is due to give birth in two days just went to spin class last Saturday. I texted her and told her that she was intense.


After Son #1 was born, I hit the gym as soon as I could and by this time, I had already lost all of my pregnancy weight. Not so much this time.

We registered both sons in swimming lessons and tomorrow is the first day. I will be taking Son #2 and Husband will be with Son #1 in his class. I was hoping to have lost enough weight to be able to wear a one piece swimsuit, but looks like I will have to be one of those people who wear t-shirts in the pool. I'm aware that the t-shirt will cling to my body in the most unflattering way, but I think it will be my security blanket in my time of insecurity.

The swimming lessons are actually coming at a good time. Tomorrow is April 30th and is when personal tax payments and most returns are due in Canada (unless you are self-employed, deceased, etc. etc.) so that means that I have an excuse to not go into the office and help. Not that I need an excuse. I'm on maternity leave, people! I actually went in today after my spin class (and shower!!) and it wasn't too busy so I don't feel too bad about not coming in tomorrow.

As an aside: why the picture of the accountant cake? Because I noticed that some people find my page by Google searching for a birthday cakes for accountants and I hate to disappoint ;)

Work vs Stay-At-Home

 image from here

Tax season. Ugh. I'm so glad that my maternity leave lets me bypass tax season this year. Crazy me, though, had to offer to help out for a few hours a day since I felt bad. Today was my first day back at work and it was only for about four hours. I think I will only come in for four hours a day until the end of April since I'm still nursing Baby #2 and he doesn't really like the bottle. I want to help out as much as I can, but I don't want to make Baby #2 have to sacrifice his comfort and nutrition! I also thought that going back to work would make realize how horrible it feels to return to work and then be warned to never return once my maternity leave ends. But it was nice to see my coworkers again and of course it wasn't bad since it was my first day back and for only four hours! If I could only work four hours a day, I wouldn't mind :) We'll see how the rest of the month goes. One thing I forgot was how tiring it is to wake up early and go to work, especially after the baby was up numerous times throughout the night.

It's actually been a while since I've only been assigned to do personal tax returns. I'm usually working on audits at around this time of the year or other corporate tax files so it's a nice change of pace. I find that a lot of people have personal tax questions once they find out that I'm an accountant so it's good to keep up-to-date on this kind of stuff so I don't seem like a complete idiot. Or maybe it's bad because then I can't use the excuse that I haven't done personal tax in a long time...

Any other parents or parents-to-be out there in accounting? I would like to stay at home after my maternity leave/pay comes to an end, but sometimes I worry about finances. I don't really want to work from home because we don't have an ideal space where I could set up an office and it's hard for me to get any work done at home anyway. Plus I would have to pay extra professional fees, software, access to accounting info, etc. And if I wanted to stay in public practice, I would prefer to work with another partner. But that's not where I'm at right now. Working in a small firm, I know how stressful it can be and the huge amounts of overtime that have to be worked. I want to be there for my kids and for my husband. I enjoy being at home and cooking, (sometimes) cleaning, and spending time with my family.

If I go back to work, it would be nice to be able to work part time or at least somewhere that doesn't require large amounts of overtime (i.e. government job). It's not that I'm lazy, but I really want to maximize the amount of time that I can spend with my sons while they're still young! I think that this is a really important time for me to be there for them so I will try really hard to make sure that I can as much as possible :)