OK, moms, you asked for it and we got it! We’ve had a rash of requests to post Kids Eat Free specials for Northwest Arkansas families at local restaurants. So we compiled a list of the ones we know about, but we’d like to hear from you!

If it’s not on our list, please tell us about your favorite Kids Eat Free restaurants around town. We’d also like to hear about those places that offer “kids eat almost-free” meals (as in super cheap).  Click the big orange “comment” button at the bottom of this post and fire away if we missed a good deal.

We’ll be posting this list for future reference under “Mealtime Mama” in our categories. That way you’ll be able to stop by for reminders when you just have to go out to eat on a certain night — or to send NWA newcomers to our page so they can be in the know.

A word of caution, though: The hours/times of the following Kids Eat Free restaurants could change, so make sure to check with them first. We’ve linked to each restaurant so you can double-check. Also, keep in mind that these offers are typically contingent upon an adult meal purchase.

So, at your request, here’s a list of Where Kids Eat Free!

Every day:

The Catfish Hole, Fayetteville (kids under 5)

Gullett’s Gourmet, Fayetteville, all day for kids under 12

Grub’s Bar & Grille, Fayetteville, all day for kids under 12

O’Charley’s, Rogers, all day

Ron’s Hamburgers & Chili, Lowell, 4 to 8 p.m.

Backwoods Barn, Goshen (5 and under eat free, ages 6 to 11 half price)

The Mad Pizza Co., Rogers, all day (4 and under)

Mondays:

Monday-Wednesday, Flying Burrito, all day

Colton’s Steak House & Grill, Rogers location only, all day

Tuesdays:

Monday-Wednesday, Flying Burrito, all day

AQ Chicken, Tues/Thurs. nights, Fayetteville, Springdale

Denny’s, Springdale, Fayetteville, Bentonville, 4 - 10 p.m.

The Venesian Inn, Tontitown, 5 - 9 p.m.

Firehouse Subs, Fayetteville, both locations, after 4 p.m.

Wednesdays:

Monday-Wednesday, Flying Burrito, all day

Noodles Italian Kitchen, Fayetteville, after 4 p.m.

Firehouse Subs, Bentonville, after 4 p.m. 

Thursdays:

AQ Chicken, Tues/Thurs. nights, Fayetteville, Springdale

Jose’s Southwest Grille, Springdale location, all day

Saturdays:

Texas Land & Cattle Steak House, Rogers, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Denny’s, Springdale, Fayetteville, Bentonville, 4 - 10 p.m.

Sundays:

Jose’s, Fayetteville, Springdale, all day

Boston’s Restaurant & Sports Bar, all day

Inexpensive kids meals:

Backyard Burgers, 99-cent kids meals (up to 2) w/adult combo purchase, after 4 p.m.

Penguin Ed’s Bar-B-Q, 99-cent kids meals, Tuesdays

Sassy’s Red House BBQ, kids 12 and under one kid meal for 99 cents with each adult meal purchased (Regularly $3.99)

Many husbands like to act all macho and pretend they never get sick and therefore never need to see a doctor. But the truth is, they do. We know it, and they know it, too, even though they’ll deny it all day. Avoiding check-ups can lead to serious problems down the road. So sometimes it pays off to be a nag and pester him until he finally goes in for that check-up you know he really needs.

When he does go to the doctor, there are a few tests that he should know about and ask for. In today’s video Doc Talk, Dr. Chris Johnson of Mercy Health System of Northwest Arkansas will give you a quick run-down of the tests most men in their mid-thirties or older need to have done. (You could drop a hint to your hubby by e-mailing him a link to this post!)

For more info on Dr. Johnson’s training and expertise, just click on his photo on the right to see a bio video. Dr. Johnson works at the Rogers Medical Center which is located in the Physicians Plaza, right next door to Mercy Hospital. You can reach his office by calling 479-338-5555.

For more “virtual visits” to the doctor’s office, click HERE or on the Health category on the right to see previously published Doc Talk video podcasts. Stay healthy!

Q: My husband HATES going to the doctor. When I finally convince him to go, what tests should I insist he have done? He is 35-years-old.

Click the play arrow below to watch Dr. Johnson give the answer!

17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.  2 Corinthians 4:17 (NKJV)

“In the Perspective of Eternity�

By Bro. John L. Cash, “Country Preacher Dad�

The Bible teaches us that bad things are bound to happen in this fallen world but that we’ve got to keep it all in perspective. It’s all going to work out in the long run—especially if you reckon the “long run� to be the time of eternity.

In today’s Scripture verse (at the top), St. Paul has a wonderful way of explaining the sufferings we face in this present life. First of all, he says our  present afflictions are “lightâ€�. Now they certainly don’t feel like they’re light when we’re going through them. But Paul says we compare the pain of our present problems with the glory we’ll receive when we see Jesus—well, there’s really no comparison. The joy will be so great that the troubles of this life will not even be remembered.

The other thing Paul says about our hard times is that they only last “for a momentâ€�. Again, our afflictions don’t feel like they’re short when we’re going through them. But when we compare the time we spend in suffering now to the infinite time of eternity that we’ll spend with God, well, our troubles are “shortâ€� indeed.

The importance perspective is not just something we read about but also something we deal with every day. Whenever you rip off a band-aid, you know it’s going to hurt for a second but then you’ll have the joy of looking at the place where your wound is now healed. Whenever the surgeon says he’s going to yank out those drain tubes, you know there’s going to be a sharp tug and a sting but then you can put on your clothes and go home. Whenever the nurses come in to tear off all that adhesive tape, you know it’s going to smart, but afterwards you can leave ICU and see your family. It’s just a matter of keeping the right perspective.

Perhaps the place where we see this perspective most clearly is the birth of a child. Yes, there’s the pain of labor and delivery, but. after the last “push,â€� all the pain is forgotten. The pain is forever forgotten and replaced with joy over the new life the Lord has sent into the world—the world has been blessed with a new baby.

Dear mamas, let’s keep things in proper perspective this week. Jesus is with us in our trials—which one day will be over and seem inconsequential when we see Him in glory. Let’s live this week with eternity’s values in view.

(Thanks to Melinda Worthington of MJW Photography for allowing us to use one of her favorite newborn baby shots to illustrate this post.)

Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad.� He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and is in the middle of his 25th year of being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi.  He and his lovely wife, Susan, and his sons, Spencer (age 18) and Seth (age 15) live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where the Preacher’s chest hair is still missing big patches that he lost to the adhesive tape of his recent excellent treadmill test.) He would love to hear from you in an email sent to extramailbox@juno.com.

By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3

When I was in my mid-twenties, I went to work for an ad agency and learned an important truth: “Money ain’t funny.� It was something my boss always used to say as a way to remind us not to make errors on billing and to treat our client’s budget with the utmost respect.

I did always respect my client’s budget. I just wish I’d done a better job of respecting my own. It’s embarrassing to admit it, but I’m in my mid-thirties and I’m just now learning how to respect my own money.

The lights started to come on a few weeks ago when Tom and I started attending this class through our church called Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. Ramsey is a well-known radio personality, best-selling author and motivational speaker. We took the class because becoming debt free seemed like “a good idea on paper.� But I wasn’t convinced it was necessary or even practical. Our generation has come to see debt as an inevitable part of life. We’ve got a house, three kids, two dogs and debt. Doesn’t everybody have it?

I found out the answer is “no.� Some people actually live debt-free, and they do it quite happily. They don’t have a big, scary credit card bill waiting to kick them in the financial rear at the end of the month. They have some money in the bank, in case of emergency. And they manage their money the way our grandparents used to manage theirs. Sounds crazy, I know, but it’s true.

Tom and I started talking about how great it would feel to be totally debt-free. And we agreed that this kind of financial security is exactly what we want for our kids as they grow up and what we want to teach them to do in their own lives.

So, hesitantly, we ditched the credit cards and are now on a cash-only system – what Ramsey calls the “envelope system.� In the class, Ramsey says paying with cash automatically helps control spending because it’s more painful to let go of actual cash than it is to slide a credit card through a machine. During the past two weeks, I’ve definitely felt that difference.

Truthfully, I miss the convenient zip-zip of my credit card. I miss the way I never really had to think about it as long as the credit card was there in my purse.

Yesterday I went grocery shopping with only the cash in my envelope. Suddenly, I noticed the price of everything and made a shocking discovery: THINGS ARE REALLY EXPENSIVE. Can’t believe I didn’t notice it before. But knowing I’d have to part with all those twenty-dollar bills made me use a different set of criteria for what went into my shopping cart. Anything in the cart had to rise to the level of “really need it,� and not just “kinda want it.� It’s easy to get a bunch of “kinda want it� when a credit card is picking up the tab and the actual bill is coming by mail 20 days from now.

When I checked out at the register, my bill came to half of what it typically is. I was amazed because I still managed to get the essentials we needed. I guess all those “kinda want it� items had been inflating the bill more than I’d realized. As the checker counted the cash I handed her, the man behind me in line jokingly said to the young clerk “Those bills and coins make it hard on you, don’t they? I’ve got a credit card so I’ll be easy.�

She laughed a little at his joke as I pushed my cart full of groceries and kids toward the door. And I laughed a little, too, because it struck me as ironic. In our culture, the money pendulum has swung so far in the credit direction that “paying as you go� suddenly seems like a fresh idea.

I also thought about the last word the man behind me in line had said: “easy.� He’s exactly right. The great thing – and the dangerous thing – about credit cards is how they make everything so easy. Easy to spend, easy to ignore your own financial reality, and easy to make smaller payments instead of paying it off (even when you promise yourself you will). It’s all so easy. And that’s why it’s also easy for families to end up living paycheck to paycheck – regardless of whether they make $20,000 a year or $200,000. Debt is an equal-opportunity mistake.

I’d be lying if I said there haven’t already been a few times I’ve wanted to dig through the trash, find the pieces and tape that credit card back together. For so long now, I’ve thought of it as my financial safety net. But perhaps that net was really a trap all along. And I want out. I want a taste of the freedom those debt-free people have.

The plan for getting out is simple and ridiculously unsophisticated. You don’t even need an “app� for it, and there’s nothing “creative� about this kind of financing. It’s just about counting money, paying bills and borrowing nothing. It feels true and honest, and I like that.

Money definitely ain’t funny. But if we can get completely out of debt and build up a cushion to protect us in this bumpy economy, I think we’ll definitely be the last ones laughing – all the way to the bank.

Gwen Rockwood is a mom to three great kids, a newspaper columnist and co-owner of nwaMotherlode.com. To read previously published installments of The Rockwood Files, click here.