what is your definition of "spending quality time with the instrument"? i play the keyboard daily, and i love playing but i'm not making much progress. i make simple improvs, play along to records etc. all i know by heart is major and minor chords ( 7, 9 , 13 , add/dim/sus and other stuff i don't know). Your "find the chords in their natural habitat" advice helped me a lot on learning what i know. can i get some more advice?
sounds like you have made some progress. here's a cool trick, get a sequencer (if you use a mac computer i think they come with one, called 'garage band', there might be one on different computers too, i'm not sure) and create some things. try to create songs you know. you will learn a lot that way