Dear Owie is a revealing and engaging collection of letters written by Nancy J. Howe to her parents and sister over a span of several decades. Beginning with the authors marriage in 1959 and continuing through the death of her father in 1983, Mrs. Howes letters, like a keyhole in a door, give readers a glimpse into the overall dynamic of her personal relationships, including an introduction to the familys unique language code. Likewise, these letters also shed light on the values held by American society during the times and eras in which they were written. From details on life as a newlywed to the authors views on integration, Dear Owie presents thoughts and images honestly and frankly from a period of time well before anyone had even heard the words politically correct.

"Parenting For School Success" is a book for parents who are seeking new ways to support their children's academic work in a time of unprecedented challenges to our school systems and family lifestyles. In it, author Nancy Howe shares dozens of thoughtful and instructive stories about her work with students who are achieving school success with less pressure and greater enjoyment. Ask - Listen - Trust is the message woven throughout "Parenting for School Success", a guide for parents looking for ways to help their children navigate a complex, competitive education system that doesn't always value students who learn differently.Nancy leads her students on a journey of discovery to uncover and affirm their own unique learning styles. This book also celebrates the parents who are helping their children learn without creating dependency or imposing unrealistic expectations. These success stories, coupled with Nancy's thoughtful explanation of common learning differences, provide an easy-to-understand guide for parents seeking help for their own children.Nancy Howe is an experienced educator who dedicated her career to helping students find their unique way of learning and then find success in school. She created a system for her students and their parents which reduced anxiety and stress and brought them closer together. Now, Nancy shares that system with you at an unprecedented time in our country. As parents juggle work, family and in-home learning, they can find answers and support in "Parenting for School Success."

FROM THE AUTHOR ON WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT Today, many people who are seeking a deeper relationship with the Ultimate Source of being, power, value, and meaning are experiencing their churches and other religious institutions as anything but welcoming. Religious communities' demands for unquestioning loyalty all too often stifle the quest for answers to hard questions about faith by actively discouraging the asking of them in the first place.In my view, coming to faith and living faithfully require confronting serious questions, respecting honest doubts, and scrutinizing religious beliefs and practices in the light of our own experiences and life-situations. This book offers encouragement to believers, inquirers, and skeptics alike who, like me, can see no way toward a credible, personal faith that does not include thinking things out for oneself, whatever the consequences of doing so may be for religious affiliations or the lack of them.Who am I to undertake a venture like this? I am a happily involved United Methodist minister who cherishes the opportunities I have been given across half a century to serve as a pastor, university chaplain, counselor, and seminary professor of both theology and pastoral care. Currently, I teach in the Graduate Programs of Liberal Studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. My wife and best friend, Nancy, and I have been married for over fifty years, and we live in Richardson, Texas. Nancy and our two daughters, Jennifer and Allison, and our two grandchildren, Reiss and McKenna, have challenged me over the years, without always knowing it, with very important and difficult questions about faith, and have not been in the least hesitant about telling me or saying what they think of my attempts to answer them.For the past seven years, I have also been writing about belief and doubt, religious discovery and disaffection, soul-sickness and soul-transformation on my website, faithchallenges.com, which has generated more than 1,700,000 sign-ins. For this book, I have revisited and revised 90 essays originally posted on the website. I selected them because they generated particularly deep and searching responses, both positive and negative, which have continued to influence my thinking and writing. For them, and for the many responses to my other postings, I am more grateful than I can adequately express.

Any woman cancer survivor can tell you precisely where she was the moment she heard the words that changed her life forever: "You have cancer." A tsunami of doctors and drugs, procedures and scans, hurry up and wait ensue. Then, after months, maybe years, the waters of frenetic activity part. The big day arrives. Treatment is over. But wait! There was safety and structure in that treatment. As survivors, we are suddenly struck by the realization there is no Humpty Dumpty moment when all the pieces of our lives will be put back together, rebuilding the person we once were. Rather, we often find ourselves still dragging the carcass of our illness behind us. Whether we're told we have no evidence of disease, or that we must live with our cancer, what will fill the holes now that the diagnosis and treatment stages have leveled off? How do we push "play"on a once-paused life? What was it all for? For the more than eight million American women survivors of all cancers, the cancer journey will forever be a part of our story. It is a story in two acts. Act 1 was our life before cancer. Now our 2nd Act must begin. An ever-growing body of research supports the idea that "helping is healing." Whether aware of that idea or not, across the country women survivors are taking their lives back by doing amazing things in their 2nd Acts. They're using their newly realized gifts of life and experience to give back to the greater good. a2ndact.org supports and celebrates these women by giving them a platform from which to share their stories: A 2nd Act: Survivorship Takes the Stage. These curated stage performances feature eight to 10 women survivors, local to their performance city, using the centuries old craft of storytelling. They are ordinary women inspiring their audiences to create their own 2nd Acts, regardless of what life challenge might lie before them. Within the pages of this book, you'll find their amazing stories, along with our hope that you, too, will be inspired to overcome whatever obstacle might be blocking your path. We further hope that you'll share what you learn with others who also need to create a 2nd Act. Proceeds from the purchase of this book will allow us to make micro-grants to other women survivors, ready to begin their 2nd Acts. We thank you for your support, as woman by woman, city by city, we change survivors' life focus from "Why Me?" to "What Next?"