Actual... Fun!

I know some moms who have to escape the day to day frustrations and sometimes outright drudgery of being a SAHM (and yes, even though I work part time late nights I still consider myself a stay at home mom) by going out clubbing and hitting the booze.  And while that can be fun in *very small doses* (and for the most part I was done with that by about age 26) this right here is more MY cup of tea:

2012 Pagan Reading Challenge

A challenge to read more books?  Resistance is futile!  Short summary:

"Books that can be counted will include nonfiction books that are about spirituality, magick, the occult, nature, myths, or the paranormal. They can be reference, how to, informative, encyclopedias, or memoir. Fictional books that can be counted are anything that has to do with the paranormal, magick, witchcraft, or have a distinctly pagan flavor to the story such as The Divine Sisters of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells. You may include books of any format including traditional  books, ebooks, or audiobooks. You may reread books. Reference books are not usually read cover to cover so I will bend the rules here. You do not have to read the book from cover to cover, but you do have to look at EVERY page in the book."

Then shoot for a level...

Novice  Read 1 - 5 books
Initiate Read 5 -10 books
Beginner Read 11 - 15 books
Intermediate Read 16 - 20 books
Advanced Read 21 - 25 books
Adept Read 26 -30 books
High Priest/Priestess Read 31 - 35 books
Elder Read  Read 36 - 40 books
God/Goddess Read 41+ books

For now I'm working on 18 books that can qualify!  But here's the secret... one of them is a 15 book fictional series by an author named Cate Tiernan called The Sweep Series.  It kind of has that "Twilight feel" but it was written several years BEFORE and written with much better character development and plot. Despite nearing my 37th birthday this series focused around high schoolers (in particular a young witch who comes into extraordinary powers by birthright) is a favorite that I actually re-read every two years or so.  They are kind of a fast and fun light read, so they are going to be easy to get through.  Beyond this I'm about to begin re-reading a non-fiction work that suddenly spoke to me about needing to re-evaluate my own relationship to motherhood, hearth and home: The Dance of the Dissident Daughter.  And because of this sentence right here: "Books that can be counted will include nonfiction books that are about spirituality, magick, the occult, nature, myths, or the paranormal" I can include this book since my recent sudden love and affiliation with birds (and new experience of being a Bird Mama) has definitely been spiritually inspired (see here).  Last but not least I am currently re-reading the whole Harry Potter series now that the movies are done (believe it or not this is my first time to re-read them).  I knocked out the first two last year and now I'm on book three, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which is one of my most favorite of the entire series.
So my lofty list of 18 puts me already at the Intermediate level.  My goal is to finish all that by about April (back in the days of B.C. I could have probably done it in a month at most, but oh well).

Winter's 2012 Pagan Reading Challenge:

Sweep - Cate Tiernan
1. Book of Shadows
2. The Coven
3. Blood Witch
4. Dark Magick
5. Awakening
6. Spellbound
7. The Calling
8. Changeling
9. Strife
10. Seeker
11. Origins
12. Eclipse
13. Reckoning
14. Full Circle
15. Night's Child
16. The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey From Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine - Sue Monk Kidd
17. A Beginner's Guide to Parakeets - Nikki Moustaki
18. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling