It's tax season

My husband is a CPA and when I say "It's tax season" it means that life is different for our family for several months.  He actually works a lot of hours all year, but the busiest time is seasonal.  I don't mind seasonal work.  I was raised with my parents running that type of business, but many people don't understand what I mean when I say "it's tax season".

Tax season doesn't just mean that my husband is doing taxes at work.  It means that he is gone from home at least 70 hours a week and usually much more than that.  The kids go days without seeing him, I am alone with them for that huge stretch of time (so I consume more caffeine and am a smidgen crabby), and we eat a lot of quesadilla's. If friends or family have questions on their taxes my husband has to do it on his own time.  If he works on firm time until 9pm or 10pm at night, it's after that that he can help others.  (And if he helps you, please appreciate that. Our whole family sacrificed for it.)  When he works most of Saturday, with Sunday his only day off, we don't have time for anything extra.

It also means that I'm a little sad sometimes because I quit working as an accountant to stay home with our kids.  I don't regret that choice but enjoyed my job and especially loved tax season.  There are days that I would give anything to get dressed up and drive off to work with him.

Spring is when the weather is the most beautiful here.  It's not too hot and not usually raining and my hard working husband misses all of that - going to and from work in the dark.  All church retreats and conferences are in the spring and we have to miss those too.  Men's, Women's, Couples, Parenting - it's all in the spring. School things like track meets and field trips to the aquarium also happen in the spring so I'm doing those alone with my crew.  We see people less and it's usually harder for me to do things like go to coffee with friends.

The kids and I have our own little routine for tax season and it doesn't take long to get back to it each year.  We play at the playground more, go on walks to the bakery for cookies and visit the library.  We eat more fast food than normal and go to the zoo a lot.  It's the time of year that the kids get to do e xtra things like acting or art classes and we usually take a trip to Montana to visit my family.

I love that I worked as an accountant because I understand my husband's job.  I can have an intelligent conversation with him about his work and I can see how good he is at it.  And he IS good.  Gifted.  He passed all four parts of the CPA exam the first time and only 10% of the people who take it can do that.

I had a blog post before about being your husbands help meet and this is how I've been his.  I did not ever feel like an accounting career was God's calling for my life so wondered why He put me there.  I enjoyed it but would've been happy doing any number of other things.  My husband had a hard time finding a major  and after I graduated from college he went into accounting too.  And he was great at it.  THIS was God's plan for his life and I am a big reason why he is where he is.  Tax season is always a time of affirmation and a time to be thankful.  I'm thankful he has a job he's good at.  I'm thankful I've had a special role in his career.  I'm thankful for the times I can leave his dinner in the fridge and turn on the porch light.  For when I can get his breakfast ready or go fill up his car with gas.  Whatever it takes to help him go be great.



http://parkermama.blogspot.com/2013/06/created-to-be-his-helpmate.html.