What's that smell?

When I stepped outside this morning I smelled the most amazing smell. It's fall and the crisp leaves are starting to decay with all the rain we had the other day. Was that it? No. It smelled so familiar and yet it has been so long since I have smelled it here. It was horse poop! Was it stuck on our shoes when we came back from THE BARN? No. I washed all of our shoes to make sure it wasn't. Oh yeah, we have ponies now!!!

Last week the girls and I watched "Where The Red Fern Grows". If you have never seen that movie you need to put it right at the top of your list. It is an amazing tale of a young boy with a desire so strong to have hound dogs, that he works odd jobs all summer to earn enough money to buy them. ( I watched this movie when I was a kid and I do believe this is where my love for hound dogs came from) After he earned the money, he hiked for miles to the next town to pick them up at the post office. The movie does have a sad ending, and this house was full of 4 crying ladies, but the message is so strong. A message that I wanted my girls to hear. They need to learn to have tenacity, perseverance and not expect to just be handed things in this life. If they have a strong desire to have something, I want them to work for it. To have such dedication to stick with something, even if it's hard, doesn't seem to always be taught anymore. I think it makes you love and appreciate things more if it doesn't always come easy.

As we were hiking the two miles back from picking up these two ponies, that the girls put their money together to buy, I couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, they might be learning those life lessons I so strongly want them to have. We do not NEED ponies of course. But it does make life a little bit more sweeter.