“Soul Sister Sunday”…..on Monday.

Soul Sister: A girl who enters your life and you instantly connect to. Someone who knows you and appreciates you for who you are.  She is someone that you don’t actually have to SEE to FEEL. Someone you are connected to…no matter what.

I am BLESSED to have some of those in my life.
One of my VERY BEST FRIENDS is named Shainee.  She is an amazing God-fearing woman who is ALWAYS down for me.
We talk DAILY and she is always telling me funny stories about life, homeschooling, and her family.
I have been trying to get her to GUEST POST on my blog for a while…
and she FINALLY DID.
And as you will read …..she did GREAT!!!!
So great that I am making her write for me every week!!!!
I’m calling it “Soul Sister Sunday”……
ENJOY!!!!!

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Today was the day. I felt like super homeschool mom to be honest. Patting myself on the back, I drove my 15 (yes that's right, 15) year old son to open up his very first bank account with a significant first deposit, that he had saved himself playing in his band. In my mind I thought that people must think I am such a smart mom, teaching her son to save.
     As we walked into the bank, I had this immense pride in the fact that while other 15 year olds could barely wake up to get to school, I had a straight A, musically gifted, little financial dynamo that was very maturely wanting to save in something other then his piggy bank. The teller greeted us with a smile asking how she could help us. I , trying to hide my stupid"proud mama" smile that I wore ear to ear responded with our intentions. She said, "How wonderful at his age!", and told us to take a seat and the president would be with us shortly.
    Now mind you, I have very little love for banking institutions but understand they are a necessary evil. That said, "THE President was helping MY son!!!!!!" As he called us into his office and asked how he could help us, I explained that my son was making a lot of cash playing in his locally popular band and name dropped all the places they play. To my defense, for this I am  now, so ashamed. Wink, wink. He responded in admiration and said how they have very few 15 year olds opening accounts, and what a responsible young man he was. Score one for the homeschool mama! This was going as wonderfully as I thought.
    Once all the formalities were in place, he told us he would set up an online account right then and there with him so he understood how it worked. Mission accomplished, my homeschooled son was a mature, well educated, functioning human being in this world,and this bank president knew it! Then it happened, the perfect image I had painted quickly began to fade and fade quickly it did.
     The banker smiled at me and said that he needed to set up some privacy questions for sons account safety. "Of course", I replied and looked to my boy with approval. Then came the first question, "What is the 4 digit pin you would like to use?' My son smiled and instantly said, 1956, the year the Grateful Dead started playing. It was at this moment I noticed the Dead t-shirt he was sporting. No biggie, I love The Dead. Next question, "What is you fathers middle name?" No brainer right? Wrong! My husband goes by his middle name and it became quite apparent that  my son had his father's  middle and first name confused. I started to feel a little clammy. This was not what an intelligent homeschooled genius looks like. The banker looked amused and at this point I am wondering if this banker might think my little hippie son is stoned,which he was not!
    Hoping to leave swiftly at this point and make deposits from the safety of the outside of a bank, on came the deal breaker, the icing on the cake, or in my case, the pie in the face, The banker said that the final step was for my son to sign his name in the atm pad to make his first deposit. Ok, thank the Lord above, we were almost done! And then it happened. I watched in horror as he PRINTED his name! Yes, that's right,  I said printed his name.
     I felt my armpits begin to sweat as I sweetly leaned over and whispered and tried not to sound mortified, "Bud, that's is your printed name, he wants your signature"..yano , like cursive!!!! Trying to act like it was a simple mistake, my son looked at me perplexed and said, "Mom, we haven't done cursive since like 3rd grade!" I tried to save face by talking the importance of online schooling and computer text versus the  ancient 1990 art of cursive. The banker  looked embarrassed for me as he sympathetically agreed. My son then began the task of writing his signature with giant letters and the skill of his third grade self. Phew, at least it was done. The banker shook our hand and I high stepped it out of there with my new little bank account holder in tow.
    In retrospect the day was a huge mama success.  Like the banker said, few 15 year olds have a bank accounts and even though my son acted like a kid, I can't help but smile and be thankful for just that. In a few short years , this  sweet boy will no longer need me for such things.  And so what if his signature wasn't perfectly formed? I have taught him so many more valuable things that he will carry with him his whole life. The ability to see people for who God made them to be, the kindness that flows from his being, and the strength to stand out in this world and be an original. But most importantly, I realized that I have no need to sing my sons praises to strangers because after time spent with other people, they are the one that do the singing.