CFC: DONE.

Phew.  I'm really glad to be writing this post!

First, here is my food list from the last day of the CFC:

Breakfast;  2 eggs and a big bowl of strawberries
Lunch:  Lentil Soup and a bowl of melon and grapes (eaten at the bagel shop!)
Snack:  almonds, cashews and crans, carrot juice, carrot sticks, apple, hard-boiled egg.

Before my swim:  Bowl of mashed sweet potatoes, with a little maple syrup and salt and pepper.  Not really that good, but gave me energy for a good, solid swim workout.  I swam 1,750 yards in about 35 minutes. 

After my swim:  Big salad made by Sam.

After a busy morning of work for me and Art Camp for Skyler (so cool!  Can't wait to show you what she's creating!), the family drove out to Swan Lake State Park for the afternoon for some canoeing and swimming.

 Jackson was very nervous about Sam and the kids being out of sight.

We love Swan Lake.  We'll even forgive the grammatical inadequacies.  But oooooh.  That really gets me!

Just to keep things interesting during my weekend without Sam, Reed ingested the missing piece of this spoon.  I immediately called my friend Sandi,  our own personal critical care nurse, and she told me what to watch for (perforated bowels?  Yikes.)

I remembered that when Skyler was a baby, I fed her  a whole jar of baby food and only when I got to the bottom of the jar did I realize that it was shattered and there were glass shards inside it.  At the time, my pediatrician assured me that kids can pass all sorts of crazy objects:  glass, nails, screws, without incident.  But still!

We'll call this Reed's own PDOTANFC
(Potentially Dangerous Objects that are NOT FOOD Challenge)

We cannot confirm whether this sharp piece of plastic has exited our Reedo yet, but he is as goofy as ever, so I think he's fine.

Did you do the CFC this time around?  Congratulations!  If you have any final thoughts on how you felt, if you think about food differently, and/ or if you have any future changes in mind, please send me an email or leave me a comment and I'll combine your thoughts with mine in a final CFC post in the next couple days. 

Tomorrow morning:  Bagel for breakfast!  And oh man, you know what else sounds good?  Nutella.

Good night!


CFC Blog Roll:
Kelly in Ohio:  Perched to Fly
Sandi and Suzanne in Maine:  Casa De Carver
Brooke in Arizona:  Action Mama
Joanne in Pennsylvania:  Miller Journey
Kirsten in Wisconsin:  From Inside to Outside
Jen in Maine:  Running With The Girls 
Maria in Maine:  Swarbles
Kristin in Iowa:  Home Sweet York
Willow in New York:  My Own Trail 

CFC: day 6

I'm kind of sick of talking about clean food, how about you?

Sam has been gone for the last 4 days at a swim meet in Vermont (we love Vermont, lately). I purposefully planned to do the cleanse while he was away to avoid the anti-kale commentary.  But we missed him, and the kids wore me out!  We are so happy to have him home. 

This will be short...
Breakfast:  Oatmeal with blueberries and maple syrup, coffee.
Snack:  almonds, crans and cashews
Lunch:  Quinoa Salad with avocado, pear, banana.
Snack:  Lots of watermelon
Dinner:  

Roasted potatoes (some sweet), broccoli, corn on the cob, 2 eggs with salsa.



Snack:  Banana with almond butter, strawberries.

Still hungry.  Want chocolate.





 Everything is tasting good, and I feel good, but for some reason my sugar cravings are getting stronger...?  Sam and I are watching Catfish, a documentary I ordered from Netflix without knowing anything about it, except that it was on a list of top documentaries from last year.  I watched it last night and couldn't stop thinking about it.  What a cool/ weird story.  Anyone seen it?

Tomorrow's sunshine and (hopefully) another good run should help me end this round of the CFC on a good note.

Hang in there, everyone else!

CFC: day 5 {got what I was waiting for!}

I do believe that Day 5 is the magical day of the CFC.  Despite the fact that it was a very, very rainy and stormy day, and we couldn't get outside, I feel great.  I feel (wait for it)...... sparkly.

I had planned a 20 mile bike ride this morning but the weather was so bad that I went to the gym to run 5 miles instead.  I purposefully planned a workout that would bring me to a soaking-wet sweat, because I was curious if the whole "clean sweat phenomenon" of the last CFC was just my imagination.  It was not my imagination! 

I tried to describe the feeling last time, and I'll try again.  My sweat feels clean and thin, like I am just misted with mineral water instead of sweating out salt.  I am usually so salty after a run that if my sweat dries, I have little salt crystals left on my face.  I usually feel sticky as soon as I'm done working out and can't wait to get in the shower.  Today, I was soaked, but it felt so clean... Weird.

As my skin dried on the drive home, I felt all dewy like I had just had a facial.  I am so curious to know what it is in my diet that makes me sweat sticky.  It's not like it's a huge problem, but I just want to know.  I have had plenty of salt this week, and that would have been the obvious culprit.  Any ideas?

I would say that if any of you who have stuck with the cleanse up to this point and you are not feeling sparkly yet, you should try a hard workout.  That is what did it for me today. 

Breakfast:  2 eggs and 1/2 of a canteloupe, coffee with coconut milk and agave.

After my run:  Smoothie made with oatmeal, flax seeds, chia seeds, canteloupe, blueberries, almond milk (arguably processed I guess) and a splash of agave.

Lunch:  A bowl of quinuoa and black bean salad with some fresh salsa and 1/2 of an avocado, while the rain pounded down outside.  



Afternoon snacks:  cashews, almonds and dried cranberries.  Banana.  Peach.



Before dinner:  baby carrots with hummus, olives and pickled garlic.

Dinner, cooked for me by my loving Mommy.

Corn (without butter!), sauteed spinach and garlic, and wild sockeye salmon with dill.  Deeeeelicious.  Totally hit the spot.

Snack when I got home:  Rice cake with almond butter, banana, and coconut. 








I am really craving some things this evening.  There is a box of Graham crackers, some marshmallows and some Hershey Chocolate bars in my kitchen cupboard that are calling me.  I'm ignoring them. 
But I am looking forward to a summer camp fire and s'mores next week.

How are you all doing out there?


CFC Blog Roll:
Kelly in Ohio:  Perched to Fly
Sandi and Suzanne in Maine:  Casa De Carver
Brooke in Arizona:  Action Mama
Joanne in Pennsylvania:  Miller Journey
Kirsten in Wisconsin:  From Inside to Outside
Jen in Maine:  Running With The Girls 
Maria in Maine:  Swarbles
Kristin in Iowa:  Home Sweet York
Willow in New York:  My Own Trail

An Immigrant's Grandson.

I've been collecting some of Reed's great lines and sayings for you.  I just don't want him to ever grow up and stop saying ridiculous things.

--Reed comes into the kitchen and picks up the phone while I am cooking dinner and says:  "Hello?  Is this the kitchen?  Is my dinner ready yet?"

When Reed needs help cleaning up, he says:  "Mom?  Can you handle this for me?"

While walking around the house with an upside-down broom and tapping the ceiling, Reed broke one of our ceiling lamps, a glass globe kind of thing.  It came crashing all around him and was actually really scary.  But he was fine.  Later when we were talking about it, I told him he was going to have to tell Sam when he got home.
Reed:  When will he be home?
Me:  In about an hour.
Reed:  Oh, I hate 'in about an hour'.

Reed tries to choose his own clothes, but he always wants to wear sweat pants and long sleeve shirts all the time.  We try to get him to wear real pants and button shirts, so he'll pick something out and run it by us, by asking:  "Is this very handsome?"

If I accidentally make it known that I'm annoyed with Sam for something, Reed chimes in:  "Daddy is definitely in the dog house."

Reed often refers to the "officer" at his school.  I was confused until I figured out that the "officer" is the lady who works in the office.  With similar logic, he asks me to hang his towel up on the "hooker" after bath.

And here is my very favorite Reedism, ever.

You may remember that the kids ran in the Fun Run on MDI a few weeks ago.  They won a gift certificate for an ice cream cone at Ben and Bill's in Bar Harbor.  Reed took forever looking at the 50+ flavors of ice cream, and then settled on Pink Bubble Gum. 

When we got into the car, and he was happily licking his ice cream, he looked around and said:

"This is such a great country."

My dad was a German immigrant, and what struck me is that he not only would have said something just like that, but he would have said it in the exact same circumstance.   You go to this beautiful place with your family, you get to run around with a bunch of kids while all the adults cheer for your wildly, and then they give you free ice cream, and then you get to choose from a room full of flavors?  What a country, indeed.

CFC: day 4

 Hello!  I made it over the hump, and now have 3 more days of the CFC.  I'm feeling pretty good.  I wouldn't go so far as to say "sparkly" yet, but I'm feeling clean and healthy and strong.

Breakfast was coffee and oatmeal with blueberries and coconut.

 Skyler juiced up a super delicious batch of juice for us to share.  (Reed was at school finishing up his last full week and Sam was at a swim meet, so it was just us today.)   She juiced one apple, one pear, 8 carrots and 1 lime.  I couldn't believe how sweet and good it was.  I was sure someone had dropped a tablespoon of sugar in there.  Yummmm.

 We worked on some house projects today.  Skyler is truly a fantastic helper.  Not "helper," like with really little kids, but she actually helps me out.  She sorted out all of my tupperware.  She takes out the compost, sweeps and mops the floors, makes her bed, sets the table, and loves to shuck corn.  She's also fun to have around because she is just so darn funny.

 I had company for lunch!

I made a recipe that needs tweaking before I share it, but it has great potential.  It is a shredded potato and eggplant thing.   You shred some potatoes and cube up some eggplant, make a layer of the potatoes in a non-stick skillet, then layer the eggplant, then layer more shredded potatoes, and it makes a sort of cake. Season with salt, pepper, and dill.   You fry it up, invert it onto a plate, and fry up the other side.  Then you cut it into wedges and serve.    It tasted great but I didn't get enough of the water out of the potatoes before cooking, so it was more mushy than I wanted on the inside  Still, the flavor was very nice. 

I also made a big batch of the Quinoua Black Bean Salad that Kelly blogged about... it really is delicious.







Who came for lunch?  Oh, just this plump bundle of adorableness. 

 This is Willow, the 11 week old daughter of my friend Erica.  (You may remember this...)

 She is looking right at me!  (Oh my God, my ovaries!)

I just loved seeing Erica as a mama.  She is full of sunshine, and she's one of those people that you just know is meant to be a mom.  And yes, I held Willow and instantly clicked into that constant state of motion,  the bounce and sway that moms do so well. 




Erica is also a gluten-free and super healthy girl, so she was a perfect CFC lunch companion.






Later in the afternoon, Skyler and Reed painted birdhouses that I got at the craft store.  They were about $6 each and it bought me a full hour to clean the kitchen while they were happily painting away. Money well spent.

 Then, Sandi and Suzanne had me and the kids over for dinner.  They are doing the CFC too, and it was great to compare notes and spend the evening with them.  My kids are soooo happy over there, so it makes for a relaxing dinner together.

First the kids made pizzas, while Suzanne, Sandi and I stared longingly at their dough.  It looked so very.... doughy.

 When it came out of the oven, it looked so very.... cheesy.  I was having serious bread and cheese hankerings, but we also noticed that all of us would have been sampling their pizzas and then wouldn't have been as hungry for our dinner.  I'm still amazed at all the mindless snacking I do when I'm not on  a plan.

The kids went upstairs to play.   And just when did this happen to us?  That there was no one to bounce, burp, change, or hover over?  They just played upstairs, quietly and without incident, for the whole hour we sat around and enjoyed our dinner.

Quinoa Salad, Broccoli with sesame seeds, Lentil Nut Loaf, and a Peanut-based soup with veggies and tempeh. It's good to have friends to CFC with.  It really is. 

And then this:

Please.  Have mercy on us. 

We fed the kids ice cream cones and then, again, sat around and stared at them while they happily licked away.  Then Maya didn't finish hers and tried to hand it off to all three of us.  We can't have that! All three of us are total rule-followers.

So we just set it down on the table, and sat looking at it with our chins in our hands.  That sad little ice cream cone looks so very good to me right now.

For dessert I came home and had a sliced mango.  It was really good, okay? 


CFC Blog Roll:
Kelly in Ohio:  Perched to Fly
Sandi and Suzanne in Maine:  Casa De Carver
Brooke in Arizona:  Action Mama
Joanne in Pennsylvania:  Miller Journey
Kirsten in Wisconsin:  From Inside to Outside
Jen in Maine:  Running With The Girls 
Maria in Maine:  Swarbles
Kristin in Iowa:  Home Sweet York
Willow in New York:  My Own Trail

Contest Winner!

 The winner is: 











And #15 is:

Yay for Amy!  Contact me and I'll put you in touch with Kate for your photo session.  Can't wait to see your pics!

CFC: day 3

Moving right along!  Today was a real test because it was the first day I was not at work, and therefore not just eating what I had packed for myself for the day.  It was a bit harder to be home, to be making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for Skyler (Reed went to school), and to be near temptations like the Starbucks in Target.  But I did just fine anyway.

Breakfast:  (if it aint broke!)  Oatmeal with blueberries!  Coffee with coconut milk and agave!

Snack:  dried mango (I get the organic non-sugared stuff from our health food store and it is amazing)

Lunch:  Salad with tomato and avocado, a bowl of Tangy Basmati Rice that Suzanne gave me yeterday.

Snack:  blueberries, almonds and some CFC-friendly granola that Suzanne also gave me. 

While cooking dinner:  Rice cake spread with half of an avocado with salt and pepper.

Dinner:  Huge salad with tuna and a roasted, diced sweet potato on top.  Does that sound weird?  It was really good.

Dessert:  Rice cake with almond butter, topped with a drizzle of agave and shredded coconut.

I lost count of the water, but I think I only got 4 bottles down. 

I felt good today, and very productive, but not as bursting with energy as the last 2 days.  While Reed was at school, Skyler and I did some craft projects and a ton of deep cleaning.  We bought a new mop  and then Skyler and I fought over who got to use it first.  True story.  And she got to use it first.

I also took the kids this afternoon to this great place that just opened in Bangor.  The kids had a blast, and were in constant, flushed-face, sweaty motion for 2 hours straight.  It was clean, not over-crowded and just plain fun.  Good job, Maine Jump!

CFC Blog Roll:
Kelly in Ohio:  Perched to Fly
Sandi and Suzanne in Maine:  Casa De Carver
Brooke in Arizona:  Action Mama
Joanne in Pennsylvania:  Miller Journey
Kirsten in Wisconsin:  From Inside to Outside
Jen in Maine:  Running With The Girls 
Maria in Maine:  Swarbles
Kristin in Iowa:  Home Sweet York
Willow in New York:  My Own Trail

CFC: day 2

First, some business:

Don't miss the photography giveaway from yesterday over here.

Also, the first newsletter for Sparrow Magazine went out today.  If you didn't get the newsletter, please add your email to the mailing list right on the magazine's website. 


I have some funny Reedisms coming soon, so for those of you who could care less about all of this food, stay tuned!





Okay, onto day 2 of the Clean Food Challenge:
For the sake of commiserating with some of my fellow CFCers who are not having the easiest time, I thought about telling you that I had a really hard day today, but I'm actually still feeling good.

I find it amazing how well I respond to setting such strict rules for myself.  I like controlling myself, I guess.  I like that if I have a passing thought about wanting a bagel or some chocolate, I say to myself:  "You can't have that right now."  And myself says:  "Oh yeah, right."  And then I move on.  Makes you wonder what other changes we could make in this manner?  I know it's not fun to always have rules, but sometimes I just find it to be an easier way of going through the day.  There aren't as many decisions to make when you are "on plan."

Here was my food day:

Breakfast:  (same as yesterday)
Oatmeal with blueberries, coffee with coconut milk and agave. 

Snack:  Dried Mango
Another snack:  rice cake with almond butter
Another snack:  banana

Lunch:  Huge salad with grated carrots, beets, sunflower seeds, garbanzo beans and cukes, balsamic vinaigrette.

After workout:  Smoothie made with carrot juice, banana, and a mango.

 While cooking dinner:  A handful of cashews

Dinner:  Tempeh, onions, broccoli and cashews.  Baked sweet potoato

Dessert:  About 10 strawberries.

Water:  4 bottles, still sipping my last one. 

I've been trying all day to come up with the right words to explain how differently my body feels when I eat this way.  It started even yesterday.  My whole abdominal area feels differently.  The words that come to mind, though none of them are quite right, are:  open, unrestricted, relaxed, even, clean, comfortable, light. 

I don't feel not good the rest of the time, but I definitely feel better now.  Clearly, it's hard to describe.  The best benefit that I can see is that my blood sugar is steady and even all day.  No dips.  No valleys.  No sleepies.  No need for coffee in the afternoon, I swear to you.

The only hard part of my day was that I had a hectic day at work finishing everything for the end of the school year, and then rushed out of the building in time to eat my salad in the car before driving to the Y where I met Susan for a run/ swim.  I was starving at lunch, and ate fast, and then the energy of my salad hadn't caught up to me before we started our workout.  We only needed to run 15 minutes and swim 30 minutes, but I don't think I felt like I was energized until the last 20 minutes of the swim (we ran first because it was hot today and then getting in the water felt sooo good). Luckily I found my swimming arms by the end and felt strong.  We ran about a mile and half and then swam about 1400 yards.

You know what I DON'T HAVE TO DO tonight?  Pack anyone's lunch.  Or grade any papers.  Or plan any lessons.  I'm going to watch a movie now.  Good night!

CFC Blog Roll:
Kelly in Ohio:  Perched to Fly
Sandi and Suzanne in Maine:  Casa De Carver
Brooke in Arizona:  Action Mama
Joanne in Pennsylvania:  Miller Journey
Kirsten in Wisconsin:  From Inside to Outside
Jen in Maine:  Running With The Girls 
Maria in Maine:  Swarbles
Kristin in Iowa:  Home Sweet York

CFC: day 1

Day one was a smashing success.  I feel fantastic.  I know that it tends to get harder for the next couple days and then easier again at the end, so I'm just enjoying how clean and fresh I feel right now.  And yes, that is after only one day of clean food.

 Here is what I ate today:

Breakfast:  Oatmeal with blueberries and a drizzle of maple syrup.  Coffee with coconut milk and agave (very good!)

Snack:  Almonds.  Peach.

Lunch:  Kale, white bean and potato soup.
Banana with almond butter.

Afternoon:  Smoothie from the health food store made with banana, peach, orange and wheat grass.

Snack:  dried mango.

Dinner:  2 eggs, avocado, organic refried black beans, basmati rice, canteloupe.

I ate dinner after a 10 mile bike ride, so I was ready for a big plate of food.  It totally satisfied me.  I also decided on this more hearty meal because Sam was eating with me and he is, shall we say, not real satisfied by a regular CFC meal.   Last night, he ate a bowl of my Kale soup and while he politely ate it, he was not a fan.  When we were talking about it today, I think his words were:  "That shit is nasty."  The man does not like kale.  It's very sad.

Ta da!  I'm working on my 5th bottle of water right now, but I actually drank about half of my bike water bottle out on my ride, so I might even be over a gallon.  I am finding it waaaay easier to get the water in this time around because of the warmer weather.  I am just naturally more thirsty. 


Hope everyone else is off to a good start today.  Tomorrow is my last day of work, and I'm going to swim afterward which tends to make me very hungry, so we'll see how it goes. 


CFC Blog Roll:
Kelly in Ohio:  Perched to Fly
Sandi and Suzanne in Maine:  Casa De Carver
Brooke in Arizona:  Action Mama
Joanne in Pennsylvania:  Miller Journey
Kirsten in Wisconsin:  From Inside to Outside
Jen in Maine:  Running With The Girls  
Maria in Maine:  Swarbles
Kristin in Iowa:  Home Sweet York


Don't miss the photography giveaway on the post below!

Kate Crabtree, a photography giveaway

I am currently eating my first breakfast for the Clean Food Challenge. I realized last night, after eating a lot of food and sweets after my run, that I am really ready for this.  Bring it, CFC.

Meanwhile, it's time for a great giveaway, and there is a potential prize for you if you are local OR far away from Maine.   Read on:


Kate Crabtree is a photographer and a friend of mine who has recently started her photography business here in Bangor, Maine.  She photographs people and places, landscapes and details, and she has a good eye both for composition and for color.  Here are three of her photos that capture what I love about Maine.

You can see more of her work over here on her website. She also has some beautiful prints in her Etsy shop over here, and even more choices on her facebook page over here.

Kate and I are teaming up this week to bring you a great giveaway.
  
Here are the details:
The prize is either an 8x 10 print of any one of her photos of your choice.
-OR-
A free portrait session (a $150 value) for local folks.  Kate does not photograph babies, but she does work with older children or families or couples.  Look through the portraits on her website for an idea of what she does so well.  You could meet Kate in Bangor or she would travel further, but charges for more than 25 miles outside of town.  She photographs outside with natural light, but other plans can be arranged. 

If you choose the portrait session, you would be able to order prints from a gallery of 20 photos.

In order to enter:

Get ready to LIKE!  To win Kate's prize, you need to LIKE three facebook pages:
One Mom in Maine
Kate Crabtree photography   and
Sparrow Magazine  (Kate will be doing some photos for Sparrow Mag for us!)

Then just leave a comment here telling us you are all liked up, and whether you would like a print OR a portrait sitting.  We will choose one random winner on Friday at 5:00 pm.  Spread the word!

Smuggler's Notch, day 2.

 Happy Father's Day to Sam!   We started the day with a big breakfast in the Brand family tradition, and I missed my dad very much.  While we ate bacon and eggs, Skyler read a book aloud about Father's Day to Sam, and Reed gave him a magnet with his picture on it.  Adorable.

Before we left for Vermont, Skyler said she had one request for the weekend:  that I did not go running.  I agreed, and even though the weather and scenery were calling me out for a run, I just stayed with the family the whole time.

 We started out Sunday at a different pool, this one is inside on one half, and outside on the other half.

 Unfortunately, Reed didn't make the height cut off for this water slide, but Skyler basically had it to herself and she went up and down, up and down, all morning long.


We spent the second half of the day going back to Notchville, home of the Lily Pad pool and the giant water slide that Reed could go on.  They both ran up three flights of stairs and shot down the water slide for about 2 hours straight, until they were so tired they developed blank, far-away stares out of their goggle-marked eyes.

When they wrapped up in towels to nap on my lap, we concluded it might be time to take them home.  They were plain-old tuckered out.

 We changed into dry clothes, hiked the path along the river back to the car, and reluctantly bid adieu to Smuggler's Notch.

If you think you may want to visit Smuggs in the summer season with your kids, here are my thoughts:  Yes, it's incredible.  There is so much to do that the hardest part is deciding what to do first.  In two full days, we didn't get to everything, not even close.  It was not over-crowded, so we never waited in lines for anything.

Smuggs offers day programs for kids (as in, you can drop off your kids at day camp and then have the whole day to yourself if you wish).  They have teen programs, a nature center, great play grounds everywhere, and walking trails around the mountain to access it all (or a shuttle that will pick you up if you'd rather not walk).  They have nice restaurants and family-friendly restaurants.  The condo that we stayed in was both fancy and homey and very comfortable, very clean and well-cared for, stocked nicely with everything we needed to cook.  They even offer a babysitting service where workers from the daycare will come to your condo and babysit so you can go out to dinner.  It seems they have thought of everything to make you happy.

sun-soaked and ready for home.

 The only downside is that the age-minimum for a lot of the fun activities (the zip line, the climbing walls, and the giant swings) is 8 years old, so that was disappointing for them.  Also, one thing I didn't know ahead of time is that there is a height minimum on all of the water slides and even the bounce house area.  The minimum was 48 inches or 42 inches, depending on the equipment.  Reed was turned away (and there were tears) at two water parks, and he was just barely tall enough at Notchville (phew).

8 year-olds and up would be able to do everything.  My kids kept saying:  "Can we come back when we are 8?"   Clearly, we had a blast and there was plenty to do, but if you want to do it all in one weekend, take your kids when they are 8 and up.


We took the scenic way home, two-lane highways all the way.  Even after we passed the stunning Vermont ski areas, there isn't one ugly stretch of the drive home.   

We made it home in time to pick up Jackson from doggy day care and get to bed at a reasonable hour.  After all, I have to WORK today.  :(

So, now it's time to focus on the Clean Food Challenge and getting serious about training again.

Yesterday we ate at McDonalds (gross), and tomorrow, I start eating clean.  I am definitely in need of a cleanse, and very ready to get started.

I've lost count at over 35 people doing the CFC this time around.  Here is the blog roll, and some people have started blogging about clean food.  Good Luck!

Sandi and Suzanne in Maine:  Casa De Carver
Brooke in Arizona:  Action Mama
Joanne in Pennsylvania:  Miller Journey
Kirsten in Wisconsin:  From Inside to Outside
Jen in Maine:  Running With The Girls       (She is currently on day 3!)
Maria in Maine:  Swarbles
Kristin in Iowa:  Home Sweet York