I'm not digging the archival of articles, how do I make them more accessible?

Here’s the site: USMC 101

Right now the entire domain is driven by wordpress but I’m thinking about doing something a little different. Maybe create some HTML pages with some of the articles presented permanently…?

I LOVE how easy it is to add a new article, and how that article appears on the front page. I don’t like the fact that once the article is archived, it’s hard to find.

I’m thinking I need a widget or something to make my older articles more accessible. I’m not even sure WHAT it is I want to do, but I don’t like the articles being sort of “buried” for lack of a better term. The tag cloud is helpful, but I guess what I want is a widget that allows the 20 most recent articles to be presented on the front page by title? Something like that.

Anyone know what I’m getting at, and have an idea of a widget I could use? Heck if you do, you understand better than I do, because I don’t even know what I want!