Category Archives: Family

Travel with Mona to Brazil

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We spent two days in Rio as part of a cruise to the East coast of South America.

Rio de Janeiro is a huge seaside city in Brazil, famous for its Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, 38 meter Christ the Redeemer statue atop Mount Corcovado and for Sugarloaf Mountain, a granite peak with cable cars to its summit. The city is also known for its sprawling favelas (shanty towns). Its raucous Carnival festival, featuring parade floats, flamboyant costumes and samba dancers, is considered the world’s largest.

The landscape of Rio, is just so different, and so beautiful. Mountains and hills rise dramatically right on the shore and the contrast between these jungle covered mountains and cliffs with the sea is stunning.

Sugarloaf Mountain is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the mouth of Guanabara Bay on a peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising 396 meters above the harbor, the peak is named for its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf sugar. For the majority of the Great Sugarloaf walk, it’s an easy stroll along a simple, steep path. It gets quite rocky towards the summit.

Ascent is made in two stages: first to the top of Urca Hill to a height of 220 meters above sea level and then the cable car goes all the way to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain, for a breathtaking 360 degree view of Rio de Janeiro, Guanabara Bay, and the blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

For many people, Rio de Janeiro is worth visiting just to see the Christ the Redeemer statue, one of the 7 wonders of the world, standing tall and proud on Corcovado Mountain.

It’s one of the largest statues of Jesus and the tallest art deco statue in the world.  Christ the Redeemer is one of Rio’s most popular tourist attractions offering stunning views of one of the best Latin American cities! In fact, the Redeemer Statue receives almost 2 million visitors per year. 

The statue itself, called Cristo Redentor in Portuguese, is 98 feet tall (30 m) and stands on a 26 foot tall pedestal, making it 125 feet tall in total. The arm span is 92 feet wide (28 m). There is a viewing platform around and beneath the statue, where you can see the Cristo Redentor and enjoy the view over Rio.

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Sebastian has a unique, unusual shape for a Cathedral. From the outside it is sort of a 4 sided cone shape with 4 sides of stained glass windows, with step looking windows/bricks/tiles up to the top of it. 

Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida: According to local tradition, three fishermen were attempting to catch a large amount of fish in the Paraíba River for a banquet honoring the visit of São Paulo Governor, Pedro de Almeida in 1717.  Despite their prayers, their attempts were fruitless until late in the day, one of the fishermen cast his net and pulled it back to find the statue of the Virgin Mary. Upon his next cast, he found the head. The group cleaned the statue, wrapped it in cloth, and returned to their task to find their fortunes had changed and they were able to obtain all the fish they needed. The statue is believed to be the work of Frei Agostino de Jesus, a monk residing in São Paulo.

Rio has some of the most famous beaches in the world! Copacabana Beach is huge and very centrally located in the city, a favorite with locals and tourists alike.

Hotels, restaurants, bars, nightclubs and residential buildings line the promenade, which constitutes the longest continuous sidewalk in the world, stretching for 4.15 kilometers (2.58 miles), facing Avenida Atlântica. On Sundays and holidays, one side of Avenida Atlântica is closed to cars, giving residents and tourists more space for activities along the beach.

Rio de Janeiro hosts one of the biggest Carnival celebrations in the entire world. Seriously, Carnival is a huge deal there.

Carnival starts on the Friday preceding the beginning of Lent, and runs for about a week. Parades and parties happen daily throughout the neighborhoods of the city, and one massive, gigantic production of a parade is held every night in the Sambadome. These parades last for hours and include elaborate floats and literally thousands of Samba dancers in big, colorful, Samba outfits.

An average of 2 million people are celebrating every day during Carnival in Rio. It’s like a huge party or an elaborate Samba production.

While you’re traveling you need a good book to read or a box of several wonderful novels.

Irresistible Accidental Heroes

They never intended to become heroes… But actions speak louder than words.
Find true love with these accidental heroes, in the pages of EIGHT BRAND NEW, full-length steamy stories, from New York Times and USA Today Bestselling, Award-Winning Authors.

TWO HEARTS’ ACCIDENTAL HEROES by Tamara Ferguson, USA Today bestselling author: Rick O’Neill has never been able to forget Shanna Weldon, the girl he suspected was being abused and had tried to help. There was evidence that she could be alive after her disappearance ten years earlier. Was she really a trafficking victim or could she be part of the organization?
SAVING ME by Natalie Ann, USA Today bestselling author: A relaxing day of golf soon turns into a life saved and the love of a lifetime found.
BAYOU HEAT by Suzanne Jenkins, USA Today bestselling author: After a devastating loss, Maggie embarks on a new chapter in her life when she takes a boat ride at dusk and discovers a body floating in the canal.
TARGETING LUCY by Cynthia Cooke, USA Today bestselling author: When a serial rapist is after the woman he used to love, can Jared Halloway protect Lucy, and keep his heart from breaking all over again?
WE’RE ALL STARS by Mona Risk, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author: She points at two children drowning. He saves them and turns their lives upside down.
BORN A HERO by Mimi Barbour, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author: Bryce’s day turns upside down when he reaches out to help an elderly lady during a raging storm. By the time he gets her to her house, the levee breaks, and they’re in deep… ahh, water.
FINDING MELINDA by Susanne Matthews, International bestselling author: If she isn’t Melinda Crites, who is she? And why is someone trying to kill her? Can she trust anyone? Especially the stranger who makes her heart sing?
COMPROMISED by Taylor Lee, USA Today bestselling author: She’s as gorgeous as she is outrageous. He’s a political superstar. What quickly becomes a face-off is complicated by their passionate love affair.

The Crystal Set

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It was a beautiful set of crystal glasses, a gift from my father that we cherished and used when we had guests. Eight of each—wine glasses, bigger water glasses, smaller liquor glasses, wide bottom cognac and champagne flutes. Notice that I use the past tense.

Last night, we heard a big noise and jumped out of bed, running to the living room barefoot. It was 4:30 am. Nothing prepared us for the sight we met in the living room. The two glass shelves in the cabinet separating the kitchen from the dining area had collapsed, pushing the cabinet door open and smashing almost all the glasses. There was glass pieces all over the kitchen, dining area, and living room. It took us a few seconds to assess the damage. Dad’s crystal set was gone forever. We still don’t know why the shelves have decided to collapse after fifteen years.

Once we recovered from our stupor, the first order of the day was to wear slippers. I swiped the tile floor with a broom, collecting the pieces in paper bag—mentally thanking Trader’s Joe for still packaging groceries in paper bags instead of plastic bags. My husband put on gloves and withdrew the broken glasses one by one from the cabinet. We filled four garbage bags. I finished the cleaning job by wiping the tiles with a wet cloth.

Now the cabinet is wide-open and empty. To think, I always complained about the lack of storage space in a condo’s small kitchen. The moral of the story is not to get attached to material things! Well thank God, I have other gifts and souvenirs from my dad.

Last Chance Plans

is on sale for $0.99 during the month of May.

Emotional, Sensual, Humorous

At twenty, Rick Lambert ran away from the US to escape the accusations hurled at him. Fifteen years later, he returns to settle in Fort Lauderdale. His mother agrees to live with him and take care of his two sons who have been raised by nannies and boarding schools.
Flight attendant, Madison Howell loves nothing more than her job. During a flight from Dubai to Miami, she meets the authoritative businessman and his mother. The sweet old lady befriends her, and Rick doesn’t hide his attraction. When his children come home, Madison finds herself entangled with the Lamberts way too often. As she helps the young boys adapt to their new life, she falls in love with their gorgeous father, but she’s not sure she really knows Rick, her charming lover. A loving son and dedicated father but also a womanizer and tough businessman with a hidden past.
When people from long-ago cross his path, secrets are revealed, threatening to ruin their romance. Now mature and powerful, Rick confronts his enemies to clear his name, but will it cost him the woman he loves?

Are you obsessed, passionate, or both?

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Are you obsessed, passionate, or both? I’m both. Not with a person, game, or money but with colorful plants. The house we bought in Oregon’s Mid-Willamette Valley in 2014 was built in 1900. It came with ¾ of an acre of deep topsoil, plenty of upgrades needed but loads of well-established perennials. Yup, with a handyman husband and lots of digging tools, I was in heaven.
I brought some of my own roses from Alaska and promptly purchased more from my favorite rose supplier, Burling Leong of Burlington Nurseries. I also planted a few rose seedlings I had started, happy to have a temperate site to evaluate my babies’ size and hardiness.

Less than 10% of the rose varieties I have grown in my Oregon yard in the last four years.

Why would I start seedlings when there are so many colors, shapes, and sizes of rose varieties available? Well, because I like to create. I used to sew, still crochet and cook, and have been known to write a book or forty, all without patterns, recipes, or outlines. I think it was Nike who said, ‘Just do it.’ I was all over that before they put out the slogan (although I’m not a runner).


Here are two of the rose babies I created. Both are rugosas. The blooms are three to four inches across. Both smell great, too.


What’s your passion? Did you know that working with it and finding a way to make it your own gives immense satisfaction? I remember my mother looking at photos of us kids and saying she was ‘Just admiring her greatest creations.’ Aww… Being a loving and caring parent or grandparent IS special, too.

Do you love birds? Check out the first book in THAT TWIN THING series, THE MIDWIFE’S SON. Two birdwatchers find each other fifteen years after meeting as children. Will they recognize each other or will Mom, the midwife, help them out? Twists and turns of emotions end in a Happy Ever After. Read separately or as part of THAT TWIN THING COLLECTION, all available to read for free with #KindleUnlimited.
If you would, please follow me on Amazon, Goodreads, and Book Bub to hear about my latest releases. I’d appreciate it.

My, how picnics have changed…

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Picnics have been around since before I was born and that was a long time ago. Mom made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on store-bought white bread, the kind that tore to pieces if the peanut butter was too thick. We didn’t have baggies of any sort, either. The sandwiches were wrapped in waxed paper or aluminum foil. We took fruit – maybe a watermelon if it was the right season – and a bag of chips. Ah, remember Wampum chips? They were the ‘other’ corn chip. Tortilla chips didn’t come in bags back then. There were only two flavors of potato chips then, too: plain and barbecue. Nothing fancy like the gyro or biscuits and gravy flavored ones I saw recently. Times were tough…

We had an honest-to-goodness picnic basket, not a paper bag or cardboard bucket. Ours was made out of wicker – the natural fiber kind, not plastic. The set came complete with Melamine-type plates (sectioned with ridges so the beans didn’t slop over into the potato salad or sandwich). There were probably paper plates available, but we never used them. We were treated to a bottle of soda or shared a pitcher of Kool Aid, chilled and in cups we took home with us to wash.

Nowadays, if we go on a picnic, we drive through a fast food restaurant or stop by the grocery store. A bag of burgers and fries or an eight-piece pack of fried chicken, a few pints of various sides, and maybe some Jo Jo’s (the most awesome super-fries in the world). Instant gratification but high cost, low nutrition, and loads of garbage to dispose of!
Back in the day, if we wanted music, we’d open the car door and listen to music on the AM radio. No Sirius, Alexa, or streaming tunes through a smartphone. Of course, there were battery-operated transistor radios around. They came out around 1955. Aw, how great to listen to music without power cords.
We sprayed DDT-type bug spray or swatted flies and mosquitoes with a fly swatter, but otherwise were pest free. We didn’t have to worry about being interrupted by phone calls either. There were no such things as portable phones, much less cell phones. That’s why it was so important to let someone know where we were going and when we’d be back. Sort of like a flight plan for a day trip on the road.

What kind of picnic foods did they have in Revolutionary War-era America? Find out about Evie’s ‘fast food, Colonial-style’ in Naked in the Winter Wind, the tale of a 21st-century woman who finds herself in a new and improved body in 1780s North Carolina.

THE FAIRIES SAGA: Thirteen books about friends and family who bounce between the 18th and 21st centuries, fighting bad guys and the elements, striving to make new lives in their little corner of North Carolina.