Can you post a photo of the site? It's hard to make suggestions without knowing where the bay window and window wells are, the depth of the front bed, and how many stories the house has. However, here's some info to get you started. The limelight hydrangea may struggle in full sun all day, since in general hydrangeas like a lot of moisture. Do you have some sort of a watering system, such as a soaker hose for the area? Also, you might want to think about something with spring interest to distract from the lawn in early to mid spring. There are some weigelas that stay quite small ('Spilled Wine' and 'My Monet' off the top of my head.) Heaths and heathers stay small. Checkmate rhododendron stays small and I have found to need no particular care other than mulch annually. Birds' nest spruce gets wide, but not tall. You can ask on the conifer forum about other smaller sized conifers. There are a couple of kinds of deutzia that stay small ('Chardonnay Pearls' and 'Nikko'), both of which I have and give little care to beyond the regular additions of mulch and some water in really dry weather that the entire bed gets. Boxwoods can be kept small with regular pruning, I believe. I'd probably go to local nurseries in the spring and read lots of tags and make notes as to height and width, bloom time, and bloom and foliage colors. Then I'd go home and figure out what might look good. Until then, I've attached a link to the plant search at the Missouri Botanical Garden's website. You can put in requirements for plant characteristics and requirements and see what pops up. There may be other similar plant searches hosted by other botanical gardens or universities. Here is a link that might be useful: Missouri Botanical Garden plant search

have you tried adjusting your colors settings in the pc? right click on a clear spot on the desktop then choose properties and go to the settings tab then under color quality you can change the settings there and there is a troubleshooting button you can try and there is an advanced button there also, try giving some of those a try but be sure you write down what it was set on first so you can go back if you should need to. definitely should last longer than 6 years especially a name brand one like that. I have monitors that are still working fine that are much much older than that. I tell you where I saw a bunch of them for just a couple dollars each was at the Salvation ARmy and Goodwill stores. Also craigslist for your area. My LCD has no distortion at all, you can change the dpi settings also if you need bigger fonts etc to be able to read. I have mine set up to fill my entire screen, it takes a little fiddling with it but I have my LCD set up just like my crt was but it is much easier for me to view in my opinion. I had to hook up one of my old crt monitors to work on another pc and I could not believe how hard it was to look at the old monitor, I sure was glad I did not have to go back for long. Now I want a bigger LCD like a 22 or 24" would be nice! Prices are coming down so much now they are so affordable. this is the one I have now

....take over her bill paying, and then giver her an allowance. Not knowing whether or not a financial Power of Attorney has been conferred, I'd be hesitant to recommend taking the responsibility of discharging another's debt. What would that mean? Paying out of your own pocket? Sign her checks for her? You can't legally sign another's checks without the granted power to do so. Perhaps the least intrusive and easiest thing would be to have her son's name added to her checking account. Even though my brother had my Mother's financial POA and took charge of asset management, etc., I had the responsibility of keeping up with the everyday things. I simply had my name added to her checking account when she was beginning the slide into Alzheimer's and getting farther and farther removed from taking care of her affairs. I seem to recall it was nothing more than a quick visit to the bank, signing a paper providing my SS#, etc. and ordering a new set of checks. I also understand what it is to try and engage a senior in other activities - sometimes it's just not in the cards. Either they're not joiners by nature or as they age there's a certain fear in trying new things that are a little outside of their comfort zone. My Mother gave up playing golf with the local ladies league at age 85 and we never could come up with something/anything even remotely close to replacing the enjoyment she got from that. From what the OP has written, it does seem her MIL is just aging and that bad habits are becomming magnified; she doesn't quite recognize her spending habits as unusual or that she's being taken advantage of by her sister. It might not be any one of the dementias one could put their finger on right now. It could be in the future.

Yeah, Lindakathy's link sounds like it might be more realistic. But both say the Salvation Army's discount is "up to 50%." I'm there a lot, and never heard of anyone getting a senior discount. I'll bet when I ask, the employees will stare blankly at me. LOL I'll ask at Wendy's and Burger King, too. I'm not there often, but every little bit helps. I'll check out Big Lots, although I suspect it's not actually 30%. And of course I'll look for an excuse to stay at the Waldorf so I can get that $5,000 off the Presidential Suite. ;-) Thanks for bringing this to our attention!