A box crocodile beats laundry because I listened to Galadriel and not Woody Allen

I've been feeling my life is a little over-stuffed lately and the seams have been starting to split. Pretty much every mum I know is over-burdened. So, is this just a malaise of the times? Should we just keep going, gritting our teeth and bearing it? I don't like that idea. I want to say stop, I want to step into this crazy cycle and slow things down, rip out some of the overstuffing and set it free.

So, yesterday, instead of doing laundry and other boring busy never-ending chores, Rory and I made a crocodile out of boxes. And I feel like shouting about it from the hilltops, because making a box crocodile was exactly what I needed to do. It was the perfect antidote to busy busy life and I thoroughly recommend it. Just as I was wondering how to deal with such a request, the universe conspired and my wonderful friend and neighbour offered us boxes and foam bits that proved to be perfect. We tied a string to the jaws so they even snap! Proud I am, and I don't mind saying it.

The plan (in Rory's mind) is to take box crocodile to Africa sneak up on real crocodiles. Oh to be 5 again.

The reason this box crocodile is quite a significant thing to me is because, like many, I tend to listen to my neurotic worrier voice (which sounds like Woody Allen). This voice tells me that you only have good things in your life if you stretch yourself to do more and do better.

But, thankfully, yesterday my calming inner voice (which to me sounds like Cate Blanchett as Galadriel) made herself heard. She told me that maybe I'm so busy doing it all that I don't even notice the 'good things'. They're here all along, jumping up and down asking to be noticed.

Wouldn't it be great if Galadriel could get a little more emphatic and give Woody Allen the old heave ho? But alas, Galadriel is a lover, not a fighter. She waits for a break in the noise and is often drowned out 

So it's up to me to step into my own noisy head and listen to the calm. To create space. To choose box crocodiles over laundry. And now I know the value of a box crocodile. As I type, the kids are occupied - putting 'baby crocs' in the mother croc's jaws so she can carry them around - 'just like in the wild' (with zoologists as parents, that's what you get). And now I have time to write. Ahh, Galadriel, how right you are.