By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3
I got a lesson in bravery today from a 5-year-old. Our preschooler, Kate, knew she’d need kindergarten immunizations before she could move into the elementary school big leagues this fall. Her preschool teachers have been talking about it for months now, encouraging everyone in the class to submit to kindergarten shots and earn a special toy reward from the “shot box”.
The kids who run the kindergarten shot gauntlet also get their names on a poster which proudly displays their achievement. If ever there was a good use of peer pressure, this is it.
After Kate’s best friend got her name on the kindergarten shot poster, she was in a big hurry to get hers up there, too. I, however, wasn’t in a hurry because I’ve been through kindergarten shots with her two older brothers and remember all too clearly the weeping and gnashing of teeth.
But the shots were inevitable so I took advantage of Kate’s sense of urgency. Today was the big day.
“You know what’s going to happen after you get your kindergarten shots?” I asked as we climbed into the minivan. “We’re going to go get the biggest ice cream treat you ever saw in your whole life!”
“The biggest?” she asked, wide-eyed.
“Yep, as big as you want,” I confirmed.
This seemed to help, but I could tell she was scared. I distracted her by chatting about ice cream flavors on the way to the clinic, and then we played a game of “I Spy” while we waited for the nurse to come in with the dreaded tray of syringes.
When the moment arrived, I took each of Kate’s small hands in mine and told her to squeeze extra hard. I felt her body tense as the first needle went into her upper thigh. Her face flinched harder at the second injection. But the third and last one – that was the biggie. Her face grimaced with the pain, and two tears ran down her cheek.
But then it was over. After applying three Bugs Bunny Band-Aids, the nurse released her and Kate buried her face in my shoulder as I scooped her up and hugged her tight, telling her over and over how well she had done – how brave she had been. After a few minutes, the relief washed over her and we joyfully walked out of there headed toward the biggest chocolate milkshake of her young life.
The kindergarten shots reminded me of something that’s easy to forget when I’m nervous about something and feel small and alone. Fear is the thing we all have in common. Just like that classroom full of 5-year-olds, we’re all facing something scary.
We may not be staring down the same monster, but we’re all in a stand-off with fear – a job, a scary diagnosis, a loss, a hard conversation, embarrassment, possible failure, what might happen, what might not happen.
I recently heard someone say that sometimes we have to “do things scared”. And it struck me as one of the truest things ever said. Kate didn’t wait for the fear of shots to pass. She didn’t wait for self-confidence to wash over her. She walked into the clinic anyway, squeezed my hands, shed a few tears, and came out the other side. She “did it scared”, which makes it all the more impressive that she did it at all.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” And she was right. But I would add to that bit 
of wisdom with this: “Do things scared, and then go have ice cream.”
Gwen Rockwood is a mom to three great kids, wife to one cool guy, a newspaper columnist and co-owner of nwaMotherlode.com. To read previously published installments of The Rockwood Files, click here.
That leaves me to believe that if all the things that are easy to do are getting me nowhere, then it’s going to take pain and hard work to get where I want to be. No pain, no gain, right?
things.
Proceeds from this event benefit the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter, so to Hershey’s, we say a big, “Thanks!” Bring your camera and your Easter basket (not provided at the hunt) and join us for activities including: search for thousands of eggs filled with Hershey’s chocolates and candy, hundreds of Golden Ticket Eggs (redeemable for valuable prizes), a Bunny Hop, coloring area, face-painting, crafts and games, Hershey Kiss and Reese’s characters, and a special appearance by the Easter Bunny!
Fayetteville’s first ever Helicopter Easter Egg Drop. This is a free event opened to all children up through 6th Grade. Pathway Baptist Church is providing 15,000 candy-filled eggs that will be dropped over the Gary Hampton Softball Complex (next to Holcomb Elementary).
How exactly does the Ozark Natural Foods Co-op work?
What’s available at the ONF deli?
I’m back home after dropping my daughter off at school in the morning and I walk over to my computer.
Shannon Magsam is mom to 10-year-old Ladybug, married to Ladybug’s dad, John, and co-creator of nwaMotherlode.com. 
down to the business of hunting eggs. That crafty Easter bunny is quite a good egg hider. We find them nestled among the flowers, tucked into the fork of a tree, just inside the drain pipe, in the mailbox, behind the flower pot. They’re everywhere!
This year and every year, we look forward to Easter because it’s the “Mother” of all holidays. It’s the one that makes all other good things possible because it symbolizes the resurrection, forgiveness, hope, joy and the promise of eternal life. Does it get any better than that?
Start with concealer.
I accented with a rosy shadow (opposite green on the color wheel) and kept the rest of my makeup simple.
us what you love about the spring
Jen Lewis teaches cooking/entertaining classes at the design studio 
idea what the stuff is. (Truth be told, the mixture does look a bit like something you might dip out of a litter box.) Maybe more kids would take the little cups of dried fruit if their teachers showed a Powerpoint presentation about the virtues of the raisin and date industry, and the lunchroom ladies put up a big sign that said “DRIED FRUIT HERE.”
Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad.” He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and has spent the last 26 years being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. (On week days he works at a public school.) He and his lovely wife, Susan, and his sons, Spencer (age 20) and Seth (age 17) live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where the folks prefer to eat fresh peaches.) He would love to hear from you in an email sent to 
Wearing tiny white earbud headphones connected to an iPhone, he fished for nearly an hour on his lake in the sky. I don’t typically stare at strangers on a plane, but he was hard to miss because he kept making a dramatic casting motion with his phone, which flung his imaginary line out into the water. Then he slowly traced his thumb in a circle against the phone’s touchscreen to reel the line back in again, slow and easy.
distinct feeling that you now know how cows feel during a cattle drive. You and your fellow cows must hoist your carry-on bags onto the conveyor belt, take off your shoes, and form lines in front of the metal detector, all of you praying the same traveler’s prayer – “Please don’t let it beep. Please don’t let it beep.” Because if it beeps, you’ll be herded to the pat-down area where cows receive a less-than-friendly frisking. Nobody wants to be that cow.
ents? It’s a technological miracle.
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