Changes in the wind

We were lucky to have had a taste of warm and sunny 80 degree weather the last couple of days only to have it blown away by a wintry mix of rain and snow. It looks like when I wear my Easter bonnet there will be freezing rain upon it. Anyone brave or stupid enough to attend outdoor Easter egg hunts this year can have 'em all.
Not that it matters out here in the cyber world, but our family is digesting an upcoming relocation to another US city. This move will take us farther away from our family (so we are extra thankful for the cottage now). I have been busy doing online research of schools and neighbourhoods in the new city. Mark is actually there now and will be spending bigger and bigger chunks of each week there through the end of April, after that he will be there all week every week.
Now I also get to prepare the house for sale and try to keep it neat for the duration of the listing. Is that even possible?! I think I am going to train the kids in an "emergency clean-up drill", so that when given 10 minutes notice we can have things relatively presentable. I think this might cost me a lot as I will probably have to bribe them into action with a trip to the ice-cream parlour or some fast food joint while people tour the house.

I have started going through cupboards and closets pitching junk and bagging stuff for donations. Where does all this stuff come from? Bags and bags of stuff that serves no useful purpose any longer and yet there it is squatting in what must make up enough square footage to start charging rent.

I also want to ask everyone if they have any great suggestions for dealing with this:


It's a Will original, graphite on latex. It's about 2'h and 1 1/2'w and lots of pressure was used to get the line drawing as pronounced as possible. I think if I used my Magic Eraser I would leave a large dull spot on the wall. Big brother suggested a pencil eraser, but I know that is not going to get it all off.
In the meantime, this is our 5th move and it never fails to amaze me how sprucing up a place to be sold makes you fall in love with it all over again!