Wednesday Sponsor Giveaway: Freehand Scraps, Big Picture Scrapbooking, + Paper & Co. Show

First of all, thank you for sharing the insight today. I did need that! I would say that my leap was a forced leap into caring for my mother-in-law. However, I have found that through this process I am growing as a person.
Thanks for the chance to win.

My biggest leap recently has been leaving my job teaching to stay home with my newborn twins. In this economy, going down to one income voluntarily is a HUGE leap of faith. But, I'll never get these years back with my kids and I have faith that I'm doing the right thing!

My leap is letting my oldest child babysit his brother & sister. This is a huge transition for me to go from being the one in charge, to letting someone else, someone whose life has been in my hands for so long, to take the reins. It is a test of how well or how poorly I have been doing my job. I know in this chosen career path that every day can seem like a test...of our creativity, of our patience, of so many personal qualities...but this transition and leap are a test of the sum of all the parts of each success & failure along the way. I cannot express how proud I am of him and of me. We were both a worried & scared at first but he has impressed me and himself with his poise & grace in this first of many transitions in the coming years.

I make a lot of leaps for the sake of my kids. My latest?
I can't stand amusement park rides that go fast or in circles - they make me dizzy. But to celebrate my son's birthday, we went snow tubing and I was not about to sit on the sidelines and not enjoy it with him. So I threw caution to the wind and went along. I had a blast, even though I still got a little dizzy from time to time. :)

My daughter will be in Italy at that very time on a school trip, so as much as I'd love to be there as well, she's using up our European travel budget this year! Either of the other two would be wonderful, though. My biggest leap was moving our family to Paris for two years for a "life experience". We're (sadly) back home again and contemplating our next big leap.

I know it probably sounds silly, as many of the PP are pretty big decisions people have made lately!
My leap of courage is doing my best to speak frankly, but with heart. Too often I say what I know people want to hear because I really don't like confrontation. In the past, when I do say what's on my mind it comes off as mean or arrogant. Then I shy away from speaking up. I need to practice saying what I think, but I believe it can be done without attacking people or something similar.

My biggest leap of late is becoming a vegetarian. I am a picky eater anyways, but it was really important to me to make this change in my eating habits. So it was a challenge for me to do it in the first place. But now I find myself summoning the courage on an almost daily basis to try new vegetables and new foods that I always assumed I did not like. I am so happy to be expanding my horizons and hopefully improving my diet.

Hi. I had to make a very hard leap just before the holidays. And am still thinking about today, everyday. I had to end a relationship with a person whom I thought was a really great friend. Over the course of the year prior things became very difficult and confusing to me. I was often left feeling full of self-doubt and bad about myself being myself when we had spent time together. It is not so much the friend I lost but we both have kids that really loved spending time together. Now that it has been few weeks I am amazed that I have changed so much. How much better I feel with out the extra drama etc. It was hard, I didnt want to make her sad but I just couldnt be the friend she needed me to be.

My biggest leap was leaving my job so I could focus on starting a family and all the doctor's appointments that infertility brings. A smaller and more recent leap is really taking charge of working out and eating better and doing it to be healthy not to be thin (though if thinner comes with it I won't complain!hehe)

My most recent leap I was pushed into...it is dealing with a pay cut at work due to the bad economy. It's tough but I know I will get through it and learn in the process. That means no extra spending, and no more big picture scrapbooking classes, after I loved my first one. Makes me sad, but it made me happy to see you are giving away passes to the Library of Memories class, which looks amazing - I need better organization and focus in my scrapbooking. And I'd love the kit as well. (Don't count me in on the Italy one...hopefully someone who can make the trip will win that.) Thanks!

Thank you Ali. The giveaways would be great, but the real prize for me here today was that quote. Perfect timing. We have been living in the US for two weeks today. I had just returned, teary eyed, from dropping my teary eyed son at his new school. His third day. He is so scared and nervous. I feel so mean. But then I saw this. little leaps to make the big leap. Just what I needed (and more tears too!) Today is going to be a much better day. Thanks again.

We sent our girls to traditional school this year. We homeschooled for four years. We knew when we took the leap it would most likely be permanent since we didn't want them to continually change schools. So our leap involved the big decision to change type of educating and the leap to the particular school they attend (which was a little farther out of our area). Thanks for the chance to win.

Hi Ali. My most recent leap has been returning to college at the age of 37 to get a degree in education. I've been working in a pretty high paying, high stress job for several years- making good money but not a good life. I thought about teaching for years and finally decided to just go for it. My next leap will be trusting that everything will be ok when I start living off a teacher's salary. :)

My most recent leap is a big one for me: I finally told a toxic friend how I really felt about her.

I haven't made any big leaps lately. I guess the last big one was deciding to have my second child (he turned 5 yesterday)
My most recent leaps have been small. A forced leap- everyone at my office had to cut hours (and salary) to save some jobs. I'm going to use this extra time for "met time" which I so desperately need. Also, I have a tiny leap - I decided to start submitting my layouts to magazines and submitted one just this past friday.

My recent leap was asking my boss to let me work from home 2 days a week and he said yes!

We sent our girls to traditional school this year. We homeschooled for four years. We knew when we took the leap it would most likely be permanent since we didn't want them to continually change schools. So our leap involved the big decision to change type of educating and the leap to the particular school they attend (which was a little farther out of our area). Thanks for the chance to win.

My biggest leap of courage....well have you ever been in a car with a teenage boy learning to drive!!!! Ahhh! Totally a leap of faith that you are all going to make it back home in one piece :) Lol!

I'm demonstrating stamping projects at a large group meeting on Saturday. I'm stressing over what I'm going to do and demonstrating for demonstrators! ACK!

My leap is having my two boys by myself -some days I think I am crazy, but mostly I love it. Barbara