I have, however, undertaken several projects around the house. I've started out by whipping the children into shape with regard to chores. They come home from school, they do their homework, then they do their chores, before they can do anything on the computer, the GameCube, or anything else fun. That has worked pretty well. In fact, yesterday they did their chores without me having to watch them every minute, and the two older children fought over whose turn it was to do the vacuuming.
With my wife's help, I've assembled an 8'x 10' metal storage building, on top of a floor we hand-built out of treated lumber. Those were both accomplishments she and I are quite pleased with.
In the process of building the outbuilding, I discovered my hair has thinned out on top quite a lot over the last year, and I'm well on my way to developing a SERIOUS bald spot. This was quite a shock.
The outbuilding holds lots of junk that was lying around the yard previously, so the yard and porch look MUCH nicer now. It's really good. Plus, of course, several things that were exposed to the weather before are now safely under shelter. Hopefully this will help keep them running (the lawnmower primarily, but the ladder and a golf bag as well).
