The back-to-school adjustment always takes me a little by surprise each August. I think, with hope, that we might slide back in to our normal school routine a little more easily than we did the year before. But then reality hits.

It's no small thing to transition from the lazy days of summer--sleeping in, hours at the pool, less time in the car--to the more frenzied days of homework and after-school activities. Moms all over the blogosphere are feeling the crunch. Caviar Desires in a Fishstick World remembers, once again, how crazy school mornings can be:

I try to do my part as quickly as possible while throwing warnings out to each of the boys. I slide their food in front of them and run out of the kitchen to go hide in my bathroom. That hairdryer just isn’t loud enough.

Jenn Satterwhite writes at The Parenting Post of the loss of those carefree days:

Where did those hours go that I was going to use to de-clutter and organize the kids’ rooms? What happened to the free time I was going to spend getting myself ready for all of the PTA duties that lie ahead? How did time go by so fast that suddenly the kids have outgrown their clothes and we find ourselves in a rush to get those much beloved new outfits for school? (Beloved by me. Dreaded by the kids.) I had a plan. A plan, people!

But perhaps there's hope. After a little deep breathing, I remind myself that there are some specific ways I can make this transition easier. I give myself--and the kids--an extra measure of grace these first few weeks, as we get used to the homework crunch and the busy mornings. We'll settle back into it--we always do. In the meantime, a few extra nights of frozen pizzas aren't the end of the world.

aPARENTly Speaking gives some specific ideas for battling the dreaded morning chaos that those back-to-school mornings bring, including an especially clever idea for the more strong-willed kids in a family:

Kids who resist verbal orders — even something as mundane as “brush your teeth” — do better when the morning routine is written down.

Productivity @ Home uses the first few weeks of school as a chance to re-evaluate her goals for the coming year:

I will spend their first week back at school establishing my own new routine for the year and working out my calendar. I will establish short and long term priorities and work on my plans for using my work time productively.

I've personally stumbled upon a new tool I'm eager to try with my own family this year. BlogHer member Vered DeLeeuw is the Community Director for UpToUs, an activity management tool for parents. She explains the concept:

UpToUs is centered on communities. The power users of the service – typically classroom parents and sports team coaches – create an UpToUs community for each classroom or team, and then manage all of the community's activities, including calendar event scheduling, announcements, photo sharing, volunteering, potlucks, group discussions and more, from a single screen.

Instead of using several sites (Facebook, eVite, Flickr, Yahoo Groups and Google Calendar), UpToUs provides classroom and team parents with all the tools that they need, tailored specifically for them, in a single, secure place.

I've tried it myself, and I'm impressed with its streamlined navigation. It carefully guards privacy--an important feature, of course, in a site that deals with children. It would be a perfect tool for classroom teachers, homeroom parents, sports coaches, scouting groups, etc. Anything that can consolidate information and can get parents, kids and teachers on the same page is worth trying, in my book.

It's enough to make a mom think hopeful thoughts about the back-to-school mayhem, after all.

Shannon Lowe is a BlogHer contributing editor (Mommy/Family). She also blogs at Rocks In My Dryer and The Parenting Post.