Hey Mike..you always pick interesting topics. :) Jeff, love your LR. It's sooo big. Large windows, too. I thought you lived in an area where plants could be wintered outdoors??? Mary, nice room. Your Begonias are doing fantastic. Wish mine looked as nice. Started cleaning the front 'plant room' at 10am yesterday morning. Washed windows, in and out, walls, and a large shelf most of my succulents will be placed. A few other shelves, too. Watered every plant in that room that weren't outdoors this summer, and scrubbed floors..but will have to redo. Finshed at 7pm. Today, I plan on finishing the other half, then the back plant room. Since the majority of plants go in both rooms, they'll be ready when plants come inside. The LR will also be cleaned, after dh and ds remove the a/c from the window....yes, Mike, we finally got an a/c. lol. Smaller succulents go in the LR windows which face south. Afterwards, the bedroom needs cleaning..wash windows, relocate tables, and two shelves most Hoyas will go on. The upstairs bathroom window will also be cleaned..hanging Hoyas are placed on the curtain rod, lol. I also have a small green house which needs cleaning and additional stones on the ground...it's emply right now, so cleaning will be a breeze. Unless a spider moved in..then it's war!!! Large trees and Agaves go in the gh. Trees that no longer fit in the house. I can't believe we're discussing hauling plants in so soon. What's going on? In past years, my plants were outside as late as Oct/early Nov. But with nights dipping in the 40's, 'which is too early for Sept,' I guess bringing plants in before days and nights stay in the 20's is mandatory. The WC's predicted today, Tues the 25th, would be the last semi-warm, 78F day. I prayed we'd get a few more wks of, well, a little warmth. This morning, while watching the news, they said this week will be in the high 70's, 50's at night. Think my prayer was answered. Thank You. I'm now wondering if bringing plants in is too early. Does anyone leave certain plants outside until frosts, and if so, which plants? I normally leave Thanksgiving Cactus out until buds appear, and some Kalanchoes. What about Jades? Since cooler temps promote red coloring, what's the lowest temps Jades will survive w/o freezing? Charlie, wait until you adopt over 100 plants..lol. Here are pics of last winter's plant rooms. front plant room, south and west windows front plant room, north and west windows Kitchen window, facing north Bedroom Can't find last years pics bathroom pics or second kitchen window. lol. But, I'm sure you get the picture. Toni

My youngest's toys are still in her room. My oldest (7) had his toys in his room until he turned 4. Then they went to a dedicated playroom. (It's also a library and office, so not dedicated to JUST being a playroom.) Until then, he took out individual toys and mostly played in whatever room I was in, but since we moved to where he has tons of friends, he's matured more, and his sister has gotten old enough to really play with, he's really benefited from the larger space. Only fragile toys stay in the bedroom now. The playroom's nice because there are frequently up to 5 kids in it. They play, in order of frequency: 1) Outside; 2) Playroom; 3) Basement ballroom, which is treated by them as a kind of gym, too; 4) His bedroom Inside toys are NOT allowed to be taken outside. When his friends sneak them out, I have them doing push ups and laps around the house in punishment, as they always ruin or lose his toys. He's learned to say "no " firmly, finally. The last place is my least favorite place, since the other kids have a tendency to break things. :-( My son builds models, etc., so someone can wreak a lot of havoc in a short period of time, and not all children are very well behaved. Plus, with the books, there really isn't room for all the toys even in a fairly large room--it's floorspace more than wall space that's the problem, because by the time the 4th kid gets in there, they're hanging from the bunks. A LOW bin system has been the most effective here--two bins high is as high as littles can reach. My eldest could now reach to 3 bins, if he need to. We used to use open baskets for storage, but as he got more dexterous and the youngest got more troublesome, we switched to modular plastic containers that work very well. They also do not collect dust the way open baskets, even ones that fit pretty well into a case, do. Colleen--"not a good idea in this day and age" as opposed to WHEN, exactly? Do you have any idea what the rate of non-familial abductions actually is? You are exposing her to thousands of times the risk with every car ride. And childhood obesity will kill hundreds of thousands more kids prematurely as they age, and it's rooted in the sedentary lifestyles of the new "outside is a SCARY PLACE, children!" generation. (As an amusing aside.... What's the chance that a child could get injured at home unsupervised versus injured or killed in a car accident? Looking at it from a simple standpoint of risk calculation, it'd be safer to leave a *TWO-year-old* locked in a childproofed bedroom than to take him anywhere in a car. The real basis for these kinds of laws isn't to make people safe but to make them FEEL safe, which are two very, very different things. I may follow such laws, but it's with a knowledge that they are stupid.)

I'm so glad the person who hurt and killed completely innocent people on Monday and yesterday will now face justice. And I'm so thankful that the people of Boston can breathe a little easier tonight. Great job by all the officers and investigators!

gsciencechick bp, we are Cubs fans , but I wanted to present both options, lol. But hands-down, Cubs for us. We've done the Oak Park tour of FLW. It is was great, but I'm not sure on public transit options getting out there. Uber? We had a rental car. DH grew up in Oak Park, but not in the FLW area. ************************************************************************ The 'L' Green Line--the CTA train that runs above Lake street, ends in Oak Park at Harlem Ave, you'd get off at the Oak Park stop(one before Harlem) and walk a few blocks north to Chicago Ave. http://cal.flwright.org/tours/homeandstudio http://www.flwright.org/combinationtours