Mixed blessing?

I ran to the Whole Foods at lunch this week to get some groceries (yes, I am THAT person that runs errands at lunchtime that aren't lunchtime errands then cram the work refrigerator full of food to keep it cold until I leave... but my alternative is after the kids go to bed and well that just isn't happening). Typically I don't buy too much on my lunch runs, just because I don't have time really. But this week I managed to get quite a lot in a short amount of time.

When I get home from work, it's just me and the kids for about 45 minutes to an hour. Cooking dinner during this time is sometimes (and by sometimes I mean 90% of the time) a challenge. You can usually engage at least two of the boys but you always have the third wild card to keep the overall status of our house pretty high on the crazy meter. With that in mind, I was a little concerned about unloading seven bags of groceries before they opened it all, spread it throughout the house, had multiple meltdowns over items I wouldn't give them right at the moment and so on.

I decided to drop the non perishables at the door, run to the kitchen with the refrigerated and frozen items (at that point 45 minutes out) and put things away at lighting speed. As I did, I noticed how quiet it was. No one was even paying attention to me and yet I didn't hear boxes being opened or bags rustling or anything. No one was begging me for food or to help put the sweet potatoes away with the casserole dishes and the cheese in the towel drawer. Why? I went looking... I was a little afraid... I can't lie. Quiet times in a house that contains three boys five and under during waking hours is never ever a good thing. However, this is what I found...

Ethan and Oliver eating their apples... Collin saw me, said "uh oh", dropped his apple and ran. Refused to be photographed with it.

Sweet little boys, sitting on the window ledge eating apples... that they had gotten from the bags... quietly. I have to tell you that was the easiest time I have ever had putting away groceries, even when Steve is here. All for the price of a few apples. Heck, I didn't even care that they weren't washed... they were organic...so what's a little dirt from handling (okay it was a little disturbing but...)? I did have to pry the label out of Oliver's mouth though, as I noticed it was missing from the apple he was eating and thankfully he was still chewing it.

I would like to think that I have the perfect plan for all future endeavors such as that, but it wasn't exactly fail proof. Yes, it was easy to quickly put things away. Yes, there was no crying or fighting. Yes, everything was put where it belongs and so there hasn't been a frantic search for the butter only to find it in the lazy susan. But, the downside to this was that I found apple goo everywhere. The floor, the window sill, the foyer table, the steps, the door handles, the carpet, you name it. Apple droppings, apple juice, apple chunks, apple stickiness...EVERYWHERE. How do they even do that?