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I'm often asked this question: How do you possibly do it all? You work full-time in software development, you parent two children, you nurture a relationship with your husband, you help him, a small business owner, by doing a lot of his marketing, you manage a household, and then you're a triathlete who trains 10+ hours a week. How does it all fit in?

Yeah, I do all that. My answer is usually two parts: a) I don't sleep much, and b) I am sure if I did less, I'd be better at everything. I'm sure I could be a better mom, wife, athlete, employee - but probably not all of those things at once.

However, something else people don't always realize about me is that I am in my car, commuting to and from work, for an hour and 15 minutes per day - sometimes more, depending on my schedule. And same goes for my husband.

The location of our current home made sense four years ago when we bought it when my hubby had a different job and the housing market was very different. We got into a very nice house at a very low price; in the last four years, the house has nearly doubled in market value. Whereas we couldn't afford to live close to my work then, we can now - and even better, my husband's business is just a couple of miles from my office, too.

The problem is, we love our neighborhood. Our friends. Our babysitter. The produce stand and meat market a half mile from our house, and the kids private Christian school two miles down the street. The dance studio The Girl attends, and the Cub Scout pack the boy belongs to.

So moving is a really, really tough decision. But I think what it's come down to is this: we're buying time.

We're imagining a five-minute commute - for me, by foot! I'm picturing how I could spend time in my kids' classrooms - an hour a week or so reading to The Girl's kindergarten class or helping The Boy's teacher - regularly, instead of having to take an entire day off of work to do anything during the day with the kids. My job has fairly flexible hours - the problem is, if I want to be at their school now, I've got a 40-minute drive each way. If the school were close to my office, I could.

I'm imagining leaving work at 5 p.m. and being at soccer or baseball practice with a fully-dressed, ready-to-go kid at 5:30 - and then not resorting to eating out or eating in the car because we're so close to home and it's just as easy to get healthy food from our refrigerator.

The area we're considering moving to is close to both my and my hubby's works, my gym, great schools, and excellent parks and recreation activities. I'm imagining making my world a little smaller - and in doing so, making our family bonds bigger. I figure the hubby and I will each get back about 7 hours a week to spend with each other and the kids - how incredible will that be!

Of course, The Boy is a little disappointed. When I told him he'd get to spend so much more time with us, he grumbled, "I don't want to spend time with you! I want to see my friends!"

I didn't think I'd hear THAT for at least a few more years. But despite making him change schools - which I know is not cool - I also know long-term, this is the right way to balance everything we need and want to do.