The knack to managing work deadlines, jam-packed family schedules and passion projects is a true balancing act.

But there is no end to the clever ways people pull it off.

Like Julie Schumacher, her husband, Brett Burwell and their 7-year-old daughter of Oak Park, IL, who embark on what they call a "working sabbatical" every summer to appease their personal wanderlust.

Julie, a freelance writer, and Brett, a web developer, are both self-employed, and have the flexibility to immerse their family in another culture during summer break. The months-long trips and "working sabbaticals" have taken them to Iceland; Washington, DC; Normandy; San Francisco; New Zealand and Vienna. This year, they're heading to Cape Town, South Africa.

Julie and Brett talk about why their family has made travel a priority, and how they've juggled career and financial decisions to ensure that these big life-enhancing trips happen every year.

Defining a family mission statement

Julie: I've always had a deep desire to see as much of the world as possible: ancient cities, modern marvels, hidden corners and wide vistas. I want to see and do as much as I can, and Brett agrees.

The immersion into new cultures, new cuisines, new landscapes and new languages is something we really value. Now, as parents, we're committed to giving our daughter a global education. As a family, you could say that our mission statement is to travel.

We set that mission statement into motion a few years ago. A friend offered up his apartment in San Francisco one year. A neighbor reached out about a family in New Zealand looking to do a house swap another year. After the third or fourth time, we started actively pursuing the trips and coming up with a plan and a process to carry them out.

Brett: These trips are massive shifts in the routines of our day-to-day lives. But after doing this for a handful of years, we've found that those shifts are a central part of what we enjoy and value so much about our time away.

Making the sabbatical work

Julie: Thankfully, we've picked up some cost-cutting tricks along the way. For instance, a plane ticket to Cape Town for a weekend is the same cost as going for a month. Because we book longer trips, we have wiggle room as to when we arrive and depart. We can fly out on a Tuesday, if it's cheaper. We can stay an extra day if it saves us extra money.

Also, we rent out our house while we're away and use that money to pay for our housing on the road — almost like a one-to-one transfer. We learned that most places become more affordable the longer you stay. It's economical for owners not to have to constantly turn over their place. If you rent for 28 days or more, the cancellation is more severe, but they offer significant discounts, upwards of 30 to 40%.

Brett: We've also picked up some tips for traveling with a young child. A well-researched and organized online map can be your best friend while traveling with a kiddo. It's super useful to know where the closest playground, kid-centric tourist spot and ice cream shop is.

Embracing all the constraints

Julie: Our flexible work schedules and freedom to be remote is what enables us to take these amazing trips. Of course, we dream of the day we can take a real, deadline-free sabbatical, and since we're with our daughter, that's its own creative constraint — in the best possible way. We try to keep to her routine and tuck her into bed at a reasonable hour each night.

So we have the opportunity to work at night, and we take it. When we're in Cape Town, we'll work from around 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., which is noon to 6 p.m. (Central Standard Time).

Dining out is a small thing if you're on a week-long vacation, but a month of eating out quickly adds up. Because we're renting an apartment or house, we buy groceries and cook in. When we go on adventures, we pack a lunch. It's a simple way to save but a smart one.

Brett: Going to the grocery store in a foreign country is one of my favorite activities. There's something about sharing such a mundane and universal experience with the locals that provides a lovely sense of place. We definitely try to incorporate local ingredients, recipes and delicacies into our cooking where we can. Being able to bring those recipes or ingredients back is a fun way to carry home little bits of our trip.

Julie: Overall, these trips are the best and hardest thing to plan for. It's this incredible experience that we have as a family. My daughter refers to herself as a traveler. She talks about trips that we've taken and gets excited about future travels. This is the best investment we can make in helping her discover a wider world and her place in it.

Brett: We come home from the trips feeling recharged, more deeply connected and packed full of wonderful memories. We're a better, stronger, healthier little family as a result.