A Little April Shower

Brings the Challenged a few flowers

Photo by Peter Burdon on Unsplash

It’s officially spring, so our winter temperatures of 70s and 80s immediately dropped to the 40s and 50s, and we got some much needed rain the last couple of days.

Not as much as we really need, of course. A winter with very little snow has left us in a drought and fire danger season, so I’m not going to complain about any precipitation, even if I do have to clean Molly’s muddy feet.

April is here, and I see that we have some challenging daily questions. I’m going to tackle a couple today, with absolutely no promises about the remainder of the month.

I’m embracing my procrastination.

Let’s get started, shall we?

April 1: April Fool’s Day. Have you ever perpetrated or fallen for an April Fool’s prank? (Bruce Coulter)

Oh, boy, Bruce. The last time I took part in an April Fool’s prank, I helped a friend convince her husband that she was pregnant — and it turned out that she actually was! I didn’t know. She didn’t know yet. A total backfire. Since then, I don’t mess around with it. By the way, that kid is over 40 now and owns a business, so it wasn’t a bad news thing, it was just a bit of a surprise.

On a crazier note, did you notice how many sales were happening yesterday? I mean, really too-good-to-be-true sales. Oddly enough, after researching, most were legit, but it’s so hard to trust that on April Fool’s Day!

April 2: International Children’s Book Day (Hans Christian Anderson’s birthday) (Kaili Bisson) What’s your favourite Hans Christian Anderson story?

As a kid, I really loved Hans Christian Anderson, and enjoyed his stories. I was especially broken up by The Little Mermaid. It was so sad. And I have to admit, I had a hard time dealing with the Disney version when it came out, because it wasn’t the story I knew. But I suppose I’m glad my kids didn’t have to deal with seafoam.

My favorite story, though, is The Ugly Duckling. I read it during the time in my life when my teeth were too big for my mouth and suddenly I had to get glasses, and — well, you get the idea. The story gave me some hope for the future. And while I still have to wear glasses, the good news is I grew into my teeth.

OR / AND

April 2: National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day celebrates a classic food favourite. The average American will have eaten over 2000 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by the time they graduate from high school. (Ronald C. Flores-Gunkle)

Oh, my gosh, I’m over 65. How many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches have I eaten by now? A million?

Maybe. I might be an old lady —

Okay, I am —

But I still love a good PB&J.

I cannot imagine being a person with a peanut allergy. How does that affect one’s childhood? I mean, come on!

If I am feeling a little down in the dumps, it’s my go-to sandwich. A pick-me-up meal. It works!

April 3: Are you a beans person? Do you enjoy meals with beans of any kind or not? Do you cook them, or open a can? Tell us about it. (Do Capozucca)

Beans, beans, the magical fruit that makes your pants say rooty-toot-toot.

I grew up on beans. We were never rich, but we needed our protein and beans are loaded with it. We had pinto beans, kidney beans, navy beans — you name it.

I absolutely love a good meal of ham and beans with homemade biscuits and a tall, cold glass of milk. Yummy, yum.

A pot of pinto beans one night, refried beans the next. Delicious.

Toss those kidney beans into your soup or salad. Incredible.

Honestly, I can’t imagine a week without a bean in it. I’m about to go make tostadas for dinner. Refried beans, tiny bits of steak, cheese, pico de gallo, avocado. Mmmmm.

I’m still not rich, I still need protein, and I love my beans!

How about you?

April is just getting started, so if you’d like to take the Challenged challenge, check it out right here:

[embed]April Arrives With More Writing Prompts for the Challenged We are here at the 25% mark…scary!medium.com

With a little luck, I’ll see you tomorrow!

In the meantime, I’ll be busy re-doing my tag list because I just accidentally made it disappear. Wish me luck and have a great rest of your day!