Welcome to my blog!  I am so excited to share my life with you.  For my first post EVER, I wanted to elaborate on the name for my blog.  I would like to start by sharing a tiny portion of my background with all of you.  Before leaving my job to become a stay-at-home mom, I completed my 5th year of teaching 2nd grade.  My favorite subject to teach was reading and there were few things more rewarding as a teacher than seeing my students improve their reading accuracy and comprehension.  Reading comprehension encompasses a number of skills such as analyzing plot and characters in fiction and utilizing text features in nonfiction. Some of these skills are more challenging than others, but one particular skill proved to be difficult for my students to grasp year after year–fact vs. opinion.

By this time you may be wondering why I’ve chosen to share this with you.  When I was brainstorming domain and blog names, I wanted something that would give a clear and concise description of what someone could expect in my posts–and then it came to me like a bolt of lightning!  One Mama’s Opinion. When I’m speaking with someone, I try to be intentional in my words by prefacing certain statements with “In my opinion…” By saying these words, I am letting the recipient of my opinion know that I don’t expect them to believe or agree with what I’m saying; I simply expect them to listen.  I also say it because I discovered that distinguishing opinions from facts can be just as tricky for adults as it is for 2nd graders. We live in a society of opinions that are treated or misconstrued as facts, and it is my OPINION (see what I did there?) that differentiating one from the other is critical.  

Facts are rigid in nature; opinions ought to be fluid.  Opinions are open to interpretation; facts are non-negotiable.  It is a fact that it snows in the winter where I live; it is an opinion that snow makes life in the winter much more enjoyable.  This is one of the many opinions I have that may not align with yours! But I will go out on a limb and say it’s good to have differing opinions–I believe that’s what makes living life so beautifully interesting.  No two people are identical in what they believe, which allows a richness of conversations and relationships that would be impossible otherwise.

I want my readers to know up front that the things I share in this blog are my OPINIONS, and not (necessarily) facts.  I don’t expect you to agree with me, but I expect you to understand and respect that I have spent time and energy developing these opinions.  I believe that society would be a lot better if we could learn that differing opinions are more of an asset than a liability. I pray that the blogs I write encourage you and make you think, even if your opinion is vastly different than mine–after all, my blog isn’t called One Mama’s Facts.   Thank YOU for devoting a portion of your valuable time to reading my opinions!