More About the Jacobus Family Adventure!

Lots of new folks are finding the Super Natural Adventures site and then finding me via e-mail to ask questions like, "Why did you move?" "Was it scary?" "How did you do it?" "How can I do it?" I recommend you start by going to my personal blog which chronicles our first years here. Read it backwards, starting in the archives, to feel like you're on the adventure with us. You can also read about the process I went through to MAKE the decision to move in an article I wrote for Athleta Chi.

Many people want to talk with me directly about their own desire to have such an adventure, especially with their family. Many want to discuss their dream and vision of raising citizens of the world or even talk about how they can bring SNA into their children's schools. I invite any and all visitors to e-mail me directly at junglemama@snamail.com

Finally, many people say, "We'd like to experience a life like yours...but only for about a week." I say, "Come on down!" Our travel partners at Activated Life Experiences can plan an amazing family travel experience for you unlike any trip you've ever had before.

Another thing you could do is a family service project. Do a fund-raiser--garage sale, bake sale, lemonade stand, you name it--to raise funds to save the rain forest. Contact me and I'll put you in touch with Tirimbina Rainforest Center. The rain forest is here in Costa Rica (and we filmed many SNA segments there, including "bats", "chocolate" and "ants") but there's also a non-profit 501c3 Tirimbina Foundation in the U.S. Your family's raised funds will go directly there, in a fund specific to preserving the rain forest.

There are many ways to parent, to raise citizens of the world, to teach our kids what we feel is important. I invite you to share in the comment section of this blog what YOU are doing.

Getting Greener

This weekend our family is planting a fruit and vegetable garden in our yard. I'm slightly nervous, only because we haven't attempted to grow anything in the San Jose climate. In Nosara, we have fruit trees and wild cilantro. The plan here (based on what the kids want to grow) is to plant carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, watermelon and lots of herbs. Stay tuned to see what sticks! We' also starting a compost pile. These are two more "resolutions" we made as a family at the start of the school year.

Another resolution was to be sure we take advantage of every free moment to get outside and enjoy Costa Rica's incredible nature. Wednesday was a half day at school, so the boys and I took advantage of the open week-day afternoon and planned to head up the mountains behind our house to take a hike. The hike idea morphed into, "sledding" or "card boarding." Before leaving, the kids ran madly around the house searching for unused boxes to craft into "sleds."

After a precarious drive up the mountain to an ideal spot, the kids jumped eagerly out of the car, slipped under the barbed wire of the sloping cow pasture and hopped onto their boards. Weeeee! Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't, but it sure was hilarious either way. The scenery was so gorgeous, I felt like I was on the set of the movie, "Heidi."

In Super Natural Adventures news:

--Check out the latest SNA segment on paper (www.supernaturaladventures.com). In a variation on our SNA theme, this segment features several of Michael's classmates presenting the topic. They do an awesome job!

--Upcoming SNA segments include the interview Michael conducted with Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin and several other segments I shot with Michael and Will's classmates.

--The Jacobus brothers are currently featured in Kids LA Magazine and the tween magazine, Pixie. Boys' Life will feature an article on them in September.

Back to School!

It's the first day of the new school year for us here in Costa Rica. Given the fresh slate of things, it feels more like the time to make new resolutions than December 31st does.

So we had a family discussion about our goals and resolutions for the coming year and, as a whole, decided we'd like to go a darker shade of green in our lifestyle this year. That includes challenging ourselves to re-use everything.

It started today, with Steve packing the kids lunches in...the clear plastic zipper cases that their new sheets came in yesterday. Michael, starting middle school, decided that "re-use" to him meant sticking with his old beat-up lunch box rather than potentially enduring quizzical stares from his new classmates about his see-through lunch tote. Will climbed out on the limb with Ryan and opted for the sheet packaging.

Sandwiches were wrapped in these nifty napkin-like contraptions that Steve and I picked up at the Go Green Expo in Atlanta this past June. It reminded me of when I lived in Japan nearly 20 years ago and people--women AND men--would bring their bento lunch box to work wrapped in what looked like a woman's hanky. They also wrapped presents with the same type of cloth. It gave me an idea of what to do with the kids' old sheets...

What are YOUR resolutions for the new school year?