It was several days after February 3rd, 2018.  On the 3rd it started snowing here in Rolling Meadows, a suburb outside of Chicago. I had finished shoveling, again, and was getting annoyed at all the snow. After all, I have a business to run. I don't have time or energy to deal with this.

Still, Mother Nature had her own ideas and the snow kept coming. Nine straight days it snowed and tied a record.  This had only happened 3 times before since 1885 when they started keeping records of things like this. The first time was in 1902, the 2nd January 6 through the 14th in 2009. They count measurable snow which is anything over .1 inches.  I believe that when all was said and done we had over 2 feet of snow.

However, I didn't yet know it was going to tie a record. All I knew was that my back was aching and I was sick and tired of it snowing. Just then, an idea popped into my head. Make soap from the snow that was being given to me. Genius! I can make it a commemorative, limited edition soap to remind people of the blizzard we were having.

I chuckled and went inside. It was a few days later that I actually followed through with my idea. I went out back where the snow was pure and untouched and started to "harvest" some. I brought it inside and left it over night to melt.

I then wanted to make sure it was as pure as could be so I filtered it with this cool filter glass my son had got as a gift. It took a long time to filter enough snow to make a batch of soap one glass at a time but it was worth it. 

Finally it was done and I set out to make the soap. I decided to put a swirl of activated charcoal through it to represent black storm clouds. I scented it with Basil and Lime Essential oils. I think they make a nice combination giving the soap a sort of sweet  licorice scent. So here it is Chicago Blizzard 2018.

Because  I am all about supporting great causes I want to donate some of the profits from this soap to a cause that is very close to my heart. It is the Illinois Spina Bifida Association.

As some of you know my son was born with spina bifida and the ISBA has always been there for us.  One of my favorite events they have is the annual holiday party. It was always something for my son and my family to look forward to. We loved it so much that I volunteered to run it for 8 years until I couldn't do it anymore.

But I can still help it be a success by donating 50% of the profit from every bar purchased to them.

So get yourself a Limited Edition bar of Chicago Blizzard 2018 and bring cheer to a lot of special kids.