Chip Bennett

Just as a follow-up on this one:

Currently, the front page layout is configurable via the “Layout” custom post meta on the edit-post screen for the page assigned as page_on_front. I have also just added an option for Default Static Front Page Layout.

These changes will be available in version 3.0, which will be released soon.

Try getting rid of the custom query (i.e. get_posts() ) and just use the normal loop:

if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
    // Loop markup here
endwhile; endif;

The problem is your custom loop is stomping the normal query that WordPress is attempting to use, and it is that normal query that knows to display only posts from the given month.

You’re telling WordPress, “Don’t use the query you want to use; use my custom query instead.”

The get_template_part() template tag is simply a file-include call to include any arbitrarily named file. It is analogous to get_header() to include header.php, get_footer() to include footer.php, get_sidebar() to include sidebar.php(), andget_search_form()to includesearchform.php`.

Calling get_template_part( $slug ) will include a file named <strong>$slug.php</strong>. The most common use case is get_template_part( 'loop' ) to include loop.php, as a means of abstracting the loop code out of the main template files.

Calling get_template_part( $slug, $name ) will include a file named $slug-$name.php. So continuing our example above, you could have a different loop output for different post formats (video, image, gallery, aside, etc.). Combining get_template_part() with get_post_format() yields a very powerful way to include post-format-specific loop output, via get_template_part( 'loop', get_post_format() ). Using that call, if the current post has a post format of “gallery”, the loop-gallery.php file would be included automatically.

But here’s the fun part: get_template_part() is really just a fancy wrapper for locate_template(): meaning that it is more powerful than a simple include() call, because it has the built-in ability to fall back to less-specific files.

If you are using a Child Theme, and call get_template_part( $slug, $name ), WordPress will attempt to include each of the following files, in order:

* $slug-$name.php in the <em>Child</em> Theme
* $slug-$name.php in the <em>Parent</em> Theme
* $slug.php in the <em>Child</em> Theme
* $slug.php in the <em>Parent</em> Theme

So if your parent Theme includes loop.php, you can override that file just for posts that have the “gallery” post format, simply by including loop-gallery.php in your Child Theme, and ensuring that you call get_template_part( 'loop', get_post_format() ) in the appropriate place(s).

Do you recommend any other source for free wordpress themes?

I would start with the official Theme repository:
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes

You’ll find many, many Themes that meet your stated criteria:

3 columns with left and right sidebar; customizable header for my header, phone number and other text; customizable background, colors.