A Better Week for Sleep

I mentioned last week that Arkhon had been having an upset stomach. This week, he has felt much better.

And he looks so handsome. He's now over 18 weeks old.

So much better, in fact, that he has been sleeping from 8:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.

Unfortunately for my sleep, I've been waking up anywhere from 3:30 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. This has been fantastic for my NaNoWriMo goal. Last Friday, I had only written 18,370 words. I was supposed to be at 23,333 words. Due to my lack of sleep, I just couldn't get up early enough in the morning in order to write. I was feeling a bit sad about it. I was worried that I once again wasn't going to complete my goal. Last year I was a little over 7000 short of my goal. I tried my best, but I just didn't get it done.

However, with the extra sleep this week, I've been getting up and writing. As of this morning, I now have written 38,620 words. I'm supposed to be at 35,000. I have exceeded my goal for this point. The story is also getting pretty intense, so it's a lot easier to work on it. Yesterday I wrote 5000 words because I just couldn't stop typing. In a week, I've written over 20,000 words.

I'm pretty excited about the progress on my story. The characters are developing nicely and the plot is moving along.

Kevin has been having a great week as well. I haven't posted videos in a long time, so hopefully I'll be able to put some up tomorrow. We have some pretty great ones with Kevin and his new puppy.

The only interruption to our sleep this week has been Dakota. She hasn't been feeling very well, and the other day she was not eating and sick to her stomach. She's obviously in pain, and we're beginning to wonder if her time is drawing to a close.

Our pretty old lady.

I hope not, but she is old and has lived a good life. I keep praying that we will know what to do for her and when it is time to let her go.

Other than that, it's been a great week! Grig's been getting (a lot) more hours at work, which is good and bad. We're grateful for the extra money, but we kind of miss him. He's a great guy. We talk about our respective plots that we're working on for stories, and bounce ideas off of each other.

One of Kevin's rare naps this week. He was exhausted and as soon as his dad picked him up, he fell asleep.

Dogs (and children) are so funny. We buy a bone for Arkhon and Dakota. It doesn't matter which bone we give them, they always want the one that the other has. There isn't really any dog aggression at our house, but I run a lot of interference. Even if Arkhon has a huge bone, if Dakota is chewing on one, he wants the one that she has. It goes the same both ways.

Kids are kind of like that too. It doesn't matter how great their toy is. If another kid is enjoying a toy, they want to take that one.

I guess that also applies to adults. If someone else has something that they love, it can be pretty easy to get jealous and want the things that others have. However, if we learn to be happy with what we already have, we find that we are a lot more content with our lives. It's something I'm working on.

Stark contrast between father and son. This picture was taken right after Grig got home from work. We have a lot to be grateful for.

Now, if only the dogs would learn to be content with their own bones.