I remind myself now and then throughout the day that we've arrived at Longerdays. Very comforting!
Yes! And I try to gauge wether darkness comes noticeably later already. I'm not sure about it, but I do think it's getting brighter in the mornings. Hard to be sure however since I have a lovely period off work and get to sleep in every day.
This is one reason why I enjoy getting an almanac geared to the latitude where I live. It gives the time of sunrise and sunset every day, so it's possible to track the times of sunrise and sunset and watch sunrise get earlier and sunset later as the world moves from winter toward spring. In addition, at the beginning of each week, there is a notice of the length of the day. For example, this Sunday the length of the day is given as 9 hours 25 minutes. Next Sunday it's 9 hours 32 minutes. That's a gain of 7 minutes.