16 Comments »

1. Katherine:
   July 21st, 2008 @ 2:14 am

   Welcome back! I’ve kept subscribing to your RSS feed, just in case. Sounds like your kids are doing really well. This amazing life has been pretty amazing for me, I got engaged in January, getting married here in Edinburgh next May. We are having a Humanist ceremony as they are legally recognised here.

2. Noell:
   July 21st, 2008 @ 7:08 am

   Hi, Katherine! Wow, congratulations!!! I just attended my second humanist wedding, performed by the brother-in-law of the bride. I love that you are able to choose someone who actually means something personal to you if you want to be the officiant.

   Thanks for staying subscribed all this time and for checking in. Good luck!

3. Michelle:
   July 21st, 2008 @ 7:38 am

   Welcome back! Sounds like it has been a wonderful, full and exciting year. I’ve kept the RSS feed just in case you came back, and was so excited to see it pop up on the screen. I look forward to more quick updates. Have a lovely day!

4. Ginny:
   July 21st, 2008 @ 8:06 am

   Glad to see you post! I actually read your scrapbooking blog, which I love btw. I hope you can find time to post here every once in awhile. I love to read about other non-religious households. It can be a struggle raising kids when all their friends believe in god & they do not.

   Congrats on becoming a Vegan. I’ve been a vegetarian since I was in 7th grade. Haven’t totally went all Vegan yet.

   My girls are both ballerinas as well, they love dance. I actually want to do something similar to that last ballet book you posted. It was gorgeous.

   Well take care, hope to see you post here every once in awhile! Especially if you have had to handle your kids friends giving them a hard time about God !!! I’d love to know how you handled it

5. mattman:
   July 21st, 2008 @ 1:14 pm

   Another loyal RSS feeder here that just couldn’t click the delete button and held out hope that you’d return. I’m glad it payed off.

   The vegan topic I find interesting. I’ve considered that several times over the years, but only got as far as reducing animal product intake to far below the ‘average’. The problem I have now, being a single dad, is time, supplies, and knowledge. The single dad and time go hand in hand — I’d be doing well to just get off the prepackaged stuff, let alone shun the meat. The supplies part is a result of the divorce leaving me with next-to-nothing. I could fix that, but that’s where we get to the knowledge part. Knowing what to get, why, and how to use it.

   One of my daughters is vegetarian, though the ovo-lacto variety. The problem is she’s pretty picky about even what vegetables or grains she’ll eat. If it isn’t mac & cheese, she kinda frowns. So I’m kind of at a loss for where to go. It’s like I need to find some kind of cooking class, followed by a (pricey) trip to the cookware section at the store.

   Have you considered a blog, article, or even book about your transition to vegan? An in-depth howto for people at all levels (including kids) would be good. You know, as if you have nothing else to do.

6. Ed Darrell:
   July 21st, 2008 @ 7:02 pm

   You’re looking great, by the photo. Doing a lot more photography? Good.

   Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub is chugging along — I had a couple of 50,000 hit days in March with an odd post, slowly working toward a million clicks.

   I moved to the Dallas ISD, to Molina High School, teaching world history and AP government this coming year. Great students, great challenges, etc.

   James graduated from high school, is off to Lawrence University in Wisconsin in the fall; Kenny’s finishing at UT-Dallas in three more semesters.

   Kathryn and I took the kids back to Utah earlier this month, to see the families. My family designated it an official reunion, as much as we ever do. Around that we toured Bryce Canyon NP, Coral Pink Sand Dunes SP, Grand Canyon NP (South and North Rims, both), and Zion Canyon NP. That was the fun stuff.

   Still pondering the great questions of life, life’s persistent questions, especially why the majority of the Texas State School Board act as if they’ve used a self-lobotomy kit.

7. Terry S.:
   July 23rd, 2008 @ 8:24 pm

   Glad to have you check in. Much has changed, yet much remains the same. I stopped posting at “Rupture” as it just seemed to have no where to go. It still exists, though. I wrote a couple of good pieces regarding a recent trip to Germany and our visits to the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp – a camp which housed around a hundred and forty thousand women and children with around one hundred thousand of them killed.

   I opened another blog (the Indy Boomer thingy) in hopes of broadening the scope of what I write about, but I haven’t really got it going either – just a few rather feeble posts.

   My older son is in an opera company north of Berlin and my younger son just obtained his MFA from UF (Fla.) and is moving to NYC in August.

   My knees have gotten progressively worse making walking problematic at best. Two surgeries have only been marginally successful. Otherwise, all is well.

   Really glad to see and hear from you. You do indeed look good. As for me, I have become a study in gray.

   Good to hear that your life and family are growing and doing well. Take care.

   TLS

8. noell:
   July 26th, 2008 @ 8:33 am

   Hey, it’s so good to hear from all of you and to catch up with what you’re doing.

   Mattman–Ummm, no, I won’t be writing a book on veganims, lol, but I would like to post here about the things that have made it easier.

9. Jason:
   July 30th, 2008 @ 9:38 am

   (… just died of a heart attack…)

   My stars and gardens! Welcome back again and again! And congrats on being another puppy-mom!! They look so freakin’ adorable together!!

   I could never go vegan, although I know a lot of people who have–I just can’t seem to give up steak or chicken (although ham has been gone since my mother stopped forcing it on me when I was ten! LOL!) Were the reasons you went vegan for philosophical reasons or health reasons? Just curious as I know many who have arrived at vegetarianism and veganism on many separate paths…

   Although not vegetarian in any form, I have become a mini-farmer, growing tons of corn, tomatoes, peppers–you name it, I’m probably growing it! to try to survive the price-shock at the supermarket these days… I find it hard to believe that tomatoes are really worth 2.99 to 4.99 a pound, you know?

   I’ve also actually laid off most of the fundies on my blog, only because we’re having a crisis of sorts in my immediate family–a renewed soldier of christ on the warpath is wreaking havoc, so I’m trying to not add fuel to the proverbial fire until cooler heads prevail–although it’s been almost two months now!!

   Anyway, I’m so glad to see you alive and kicking–there were some nasty rumors which I’ll digress to go into, except to say it’s good to see you haven’t been raptured “just because…”

10. Christian:
    August 8th, 2008 @ 9:06 pm

    Dear Noell.

    I’m a very bad writer of english, sorry.

    You look very nice at photography.

    I’m happy you are come. Do you will write more? I have a link in my blog long ago of your blog. I find your ideas very usefully. I’m agnostic an I write about and to young people and the consequences of religions.

    (I’m extenuated of write in english.)

    —

    Estimada Noell.

    Por la fotografía se ve que usted ha estado muy bien, que bueno.

    Que gusto que escriba de nuevo. ¿Lo seguirá haciendo? Tengo un vínculo en mi bitácora hacia la suya. Encuentro sus ideas muy útiles. También soy agnóstico y escribo para y acerca de los jóvenes, y las consecuencias de las religiones.

    Le mando un cordial saludo desde México.

11. Laura:
    September 11th, 2008 @ 8:17 pm

    So good to see a post here, although I know how busy you are at paperclipping, etc and life.

12. Kevin:
    September 22nd, 2008 @ 2:19 pm

    Hi Noell,

    I discovered your blog soon after I began to identify as an agnostic and shortly after my partner Scott and I adopted our newborn son. I appreciate your posts. I know you are not able to write as much these days but I sure enjoy when you do! Also, I really enjoyed the section you wrote for the book Parenting Beyond Belief.

    I have teamed up with my friend and co-author Christine to write and publish a quote book titled: “The Best Nonreligious Quotes Ever”. It is a collection of nonreligious quotes designed to uplift and amuse. We have included a quote of yours in our book.

    The reason for writing this just published book stems from the fact that most, if not all, inspirational quote books contain religious references in one form or another. Where, we thought, is the inspirational quote book that is geared toward the nonreligious reader? We decided to write one ourselves.

    We would like to send you a complimentary copy of our book. If you would like one, please email an address for us to mail it to you. My email address is: kwr446@gmail.com.

    Feel free to check out our book’s website: http://www.nonreligiousquotes.com.

    Thanks for being a presence for all of us agnostic parents!

    Kevin Reedy (Portland, OR)

13. lisa:
    November 11th, 2008 @ 1:06 pm

    Hi-I discovered your blog last spring. I adopted my daughter in January and was stunned to discover how many people who never cared about my lack of religion previously-suddenly had strong reactions against atheist parenting. So I started looking for connections, found you, but you were gone-so glad I doublechecked!
    It’s fascinating to me how invested people become when you have a child, and it explains my parents’ behavior-they didn’t really “come out” as atheists until we were all independent adults. ~lmc

14. Shannon:
    August 27th, 2009 @ 2:59 pm

    I newly discovered that I am agnostic. I really think that its the only real truth: No one really knows for sure if there is a god or not and what happens when we die. People just don’t admit that that’s how they really feel, because there’s so much pressure to be some religion. if you tell peolpe that you are agnostic or atheist they automatically want to argue with you and convert you to their religion. Family practically disowns you, and it’s almost impossible to find other like-minded people that are non-religious! It’s even more of a stigma if you have kids. So I am so glad I came across this website. I enjoy reading other stories about people who have “converted” from religion to agnostic! Are there any support groups for us?

15. Shannon:
    August 27th, 2009 @ 3:00 pm

    oops! Sorry about my typos! I forgot to read what I wrote before I sent it.

16. Michelle:
    March 25th, 2010 @ 8:06 pm

    Hi Noell,

    I just came across your blog when I googled “agnostic easter”. I was wondering what the term would generate, as I’m putting “Happy Agnostic Easter!” on my easter baskets this year.

    I found it very refreshing to see an Agnostic Mom, and then when I saw that you are vegan I just about fell to the floor. I’m currently just a girl getting through graduate school, but my boyfriend and I have already [roughly] planned out our “Agnostic Vegan Wedding” (oh yes, only vegan food served and none of that religious talk =]) and have dreamed over raising our future children the same way.

    It seems every day I see proof, whether in a book I’m reading, a website I come across, or a conversation that I have that I’m not the only one who refuses to believe in fairy tales and myths regarding the healthfulness of animal products and “god”.

    Thanks, Noell

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