You might think this is unimportant and could care less whether or not we have to leave the comfort of our chairs in order to have a comfortable conversation during a commercial. And no, we've tried hiring our children to do this job, but we can't afford their salaries. So for our family this is a tragedy in the making. You see, this remote controls the volume of not only our stereo, but our TV as well. For some reason, awhile back our TV decided that it was no longer speaking to us, so we had to run sound through our stereo.

It's a common problem in our family. No, I'm not talking about losing the desire to spew forth sound. That, I'm afraid, will never be a problem in this household. What I'm talking about is losing things. It seems as though not an hour has past since Christmas that one of my kids wasn't inquiring about a misplaced toy or desperately needed part to a toy that without this thing-a-ma-jig, the toy would not work.

 How am I supposed to know?  They can't seem to understand that even though I do have eyes in the back of my head, they aren't used for watching toys as they pick themselves up and hide under the bed. No, those eyes are only used for watching out for children who misbehave.

My husband also seems to think that I know the whereabouts of his misplaced belongings. Yes, I'm the primary housecleaner and if I find it, I try to put it in a place that I'm sure to remember when my husband comes looking for it. Important papers are filed for future reference. But my husband has a hard time with my filing system. Is Sam Jones's contract under "S" for Sam, "J" for Jones or "C" for contracts?  Or is it in File 13? I confess that I have been known to throw important, dust covered items in the trash. It seems as though my husband's "prized belongings" that have been sitting on the microwave for six months are useless to him until they are sitting in the bottom of the dumpster.

Now that Christmas vacation is over and it's time for the kids to return to school, I've decided that the only way we are going to recover all of the missing toys is to clean their rooms. We started this morning, and to my surprise the kids were actually enthused about cleaning and the more toys, parts, and money they found, the more excited they became. They were starting to believe what I had told them all along: "It's probably in your room. You'll just have to pick up a few things to find it".

Despite the discovery of great and forgotten treasures and three loads of laundry, we did not run across our remote. It must be in the living room somewhere. Even though I'm sure we covered that area thoroughly, there must be one place that we've overlooked. Or just maybe it's in File 13.