"Love" is in the Air

Earlier in the week the girls rediscovered their silly band bracelets and were wearing them to school.  Sophie gave me the one pictured below, because "we love each other and we can each wear one to show how much we love each other."  She gave me permission to keep it on my bedside stand while I'm sleeping.  Charles got one too.

It's been harder for Charles to continue his exercise regime now that the sun doesn't rise until after 6:30 each morning.  One day this week he used an app on his iPad to do a circuit routine and was joined by a little person who was also up early.  Here's a blurry photo of them doing squats:

Charles worked today on constructing an art center for the girls in the basement.  This project will probably take several weekends, but he got a good start today.  The girls had a blast watching him and running downstairs to upstairs and back again checking his progress.  At one point, Sophie wanted to "dress up" to make Dad laugh while he was working.  Here's what she wore:

This morning I discovered a rotten spaghetti squash on our shelf in the laundry room.  While cleaning up that mess, I found a couple of delicata squash that needed to be used before they went the way of the spaghetti squash.  Having never eaten this beautiful vegetable before, I went online looking for recipes and found several that I want to try.  Tonight I made roasted delicata squash stuffed with a quinoa salad made with apples, raisins and tossed in a light honey red wine vinaigrette.  It was delicious, and I loved the taste and texture of the delicata squash.  It is creamy and would be delicious roasted on its own, which I'll try with some of the others we have.  It's also easy to prepare, and you can even eat the skin.  A win-win all around, I would say!

Isn't it beautiful?  It might surpass acorn squash as my favorite squash.  I'll definitely want to plant it again next year, and I may have to find it in stores too once my small supply is gone.