Longer Days and Shorter Nights :)

The days are getting noticeably longer now. We now have light until after 5 pm. In the heart of winter it would get dark before 4pm and light around 6:30ish am. Now we have light til almost 5:20pm. I'm not sure what time it gets light in the mornings as I'm well tucked into my nice warm bed and really don't care too much. I do know it is still dark at 4;30am as I was up then last night and it was dark. I've already taken advantage of the extra light to send the boys outside more and more as we have some nice weather. They have been playing 'pirates' on a lump of snow which covers some old boards that serves as their 'boat.' They have TONS of adventures sailing here and there and looking for treasure. As they get older they can spend more time out of doors then they could before as they can come inside when they are cold and 'warm up' and I don't have to worry about them so much. They also bring firewood to the porch and soon I will have them running up and down the driveway again running off some of that energy that little boys seem to never run out of. For myself the longer days mean more time to remember that we have a farm and to get my brain ready for spring and the total lack of ice, snow and cold weather. One thing about living this far north that unless you go to a gym there really isn't any way to get exercise with out equipment during the winter.. the days are too short or too cold, or it's much too icy. So we end up living inside during the winter and outside in the summer. We don't get green grass here until the end of May and often it's only days between snow and ice and green grass and mud. Days between sleds and bikes. By May it'll be dark around 10pm and light as early as 4:30am. Boy am I looking forward to that!! But this is nice too and I always have some inside projects to be done. I better get going and get some more finished as I've only got 3 months til May and spring work and baby piglets :)