Serendipity?!?

I read in a mothering book that we should look for and enjoy those moments of serendipity in our day... those moments that we didn't plan for, but happen and enhance our day.

So here is my serendipitous moment of the day: I am the achievement day leader for the 8-9 year old girls in our ward. Today we made family home evening kits, the topic was Joseph Smith's first vision. I see a recipe online for how to make pioneer taffy, the recipe is as follows:

1 cup sugar
2 cups honey
1 cup cream
Boil to hardball stage, blah, blah, blah, enjoy!

Me: "Oh wow, I could totally make that with the girls. I have the ingredients and wouldn't it be fun to pull the taffy together... it will be like a good old fashioned pioneer ho-down!"

Recipe: "whah ha ha ha ha (a sinister laugh)"

So the girls come and 30 minutes into our hour lesson, we pour the ingredients into the pan-- 30 minutes later, the temperature of the concoction has only risen to about 100 degrees, hardball stage is 260 degrees and the temperature doesn't seem to be rising very fast at all. The girls leave upset with a promise of me bringing the taffy to church.

FAST FORWARD to 3 hours later, the taffy is still NOT up to HARDBOIL stage, not having made taffy before, I call my mom at this point.

Me: Mom, how long is taffy supposed to cook?

Mom: About 30 min. tops, why?

Me: Is it okay if mine has been cooking for 3 hours?

Mom: No, abort, abort! Throw the taffy out and call it a loss.

Me: No! I put 2 cups of honey in there, do you have any idea how expensive honey is? I am not giving up!

FAST FORWARD 1 hour later (4 hours cooking now) Hard ball stage is achieved!!! Now I pour it into a buttered pan and wait for it to cool... having already waited 4 hours, I impatiently butter my hands and try to form the dang thing into a ball... I burn my hands... taffy is everywhere, stuck to the counter tops, pans, and me... the twins keep asking me if I'm okay.

Finally the taffy quits being sticky, so it must be ready? We wrap the taffys and the twins want a piece. They both spit them out and say how disgusting they are. I try a piece, yuck! I must have burned the cream.

So there you have it I was not planning on spending 5 hours today making burned taffy, but hey, I learned a new skill right? One that will never ever be put to use again! Thanks serendipity! PS. Ashlyn took the picture... she's only 4 and she's a PC!