The Simple life... Is it Really simple?

We have been moving toward a more simple life, I guess a back to our roots way of life for some time now. We have learned many things over the course of time, We have had successes and failures along the way, We are more self sufficient now than we have ever been!
We have decreased our need for trips to the grocery store and down sized our monthly bills...No more TV! ( and no...we do not miss it!)
We have been able to move from two incomes, down to one income and feel we live very comfortably but, Is it a simple life? Well that is where it gets a little tricky! There is a ton of work to be done everyday, tending to the animals and maintaining the gardens, We bake bread about three times a week, preserve all the food we can...Vegetables and meat. We have learned not to waste anything! When we butcher an animal, we can the meat and cook the remnants for stock, if the bread gets a little stale, we dry it for croutons or bread crumbs...All our food is gathered by hard work and that keeps you motivated to not waste any part of it!
We have learned to make things like brown sugar and Mayonnaise, salsa. sauces and apple cider vinegar! What we don't process in the canner, we dehydrate, We store food in the cellar and have to keep a watchful eye, that we are using it before it starts to break down...All of this takes effort!
We haul manure for the gardens several times a week by pick up truck load and unload it by hand to use on the gardens now or in the future. We cut, split and stack fire wood for the stove...Our only source of heat! We are always trying to learn more skills that will add to self sufficiency! If something breaks, we fix it, We try not to buy anything that we do not truly need, in fact we are in the process of down sizing and learning that, what we thought we needed....we really can live with out!
On top of all those jobs, I also home school and laundry hangs to dry out side.
These are things our Grandparents and Great Grandparents learned and practiced everyday, skills and a way of life that some how got discarded in time, wisdom that should never have been forgotten, they worked out the kinks and now we have to start all over again, because we allowed that way of life to be forgotten! Living this way may not be so simple but it is fulfilling, The satisfaction you gain is worth so much. We are happier and healthier in so many ways, closer as a family and rich in the abundance we have created...Truly blessed! We live in tune with the seasons and notice more around us, Gazing at the stars in the night, watching the sun set and hearing the sounds of nature! being a producer and not a consumer, we don't have to make weekly trips to the store and keep such a fast pace in which... the little things in life are not noticed and I think that is the difference! So you see in some ways it is simple after all, for it the little things in life that mean the most and that's what is lost in the society we have in modern times today!