Back in the day, money was tight and time was plentiful. While money isn't plentiful, it's no longer my #1 concern. Time on the other hand, it's a scarce resource. My projects have slowed as the family grew. I was smart about it and cut my projects back so I didn't have stacks of unfinished projects laying around. I built a few cabs in 2015 and 2016. I built a full size R2, and some fun Raspberry Pi projects, but most of my projects now are around the house. Like yots, my family knows when certain projects are coming up and I need to carve out time for them, I just make sure my other time is spent doing family related projects. It's a balancing act for sure.
As for the arcade games, I'm at a point where the arcade setup I have now plays just about everything I need. I turn them on rarely, but they are nice to have. When I'm gaming, it's usually on the Wii or Wii-U with the kids. Currently playing Mario Kart. Lots of fun.
As for teachers.... I'd like to see them get good pay, and I'd like to see classes be better equipped, but in no way should that be done through a tax increase. Taxes are outrageous where I live. I'm totally fine with the classrooms having their fundraisers to improve the classrooms. Taxing the whole community so the classrooms can have flexible seating or other niceties, I'm over it.