juggledad

Your site is most likely hacked.

run a scuri scan: https://sitecheck.sucuri.net

You need to start working your way through these resources:

https://codex.wordpress.org/FAQ_My_site_was_hacked
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/268083#post-1065779
http://smackdown.blogsblogsblogs.com/2008/06/24/how-to-completely-clean-your-hacked-wordpress-installation/
http://ottopress.com/2009/hacked-wordpress-backdoors/
Additional Resources:

http://sitecheck.sucuri.net/scanner/
http://www.unmaskparasites.com/
http://blog.sucuri.net/2012/03/wordpress-understanding-its-true-vulnerability.html

manually remove the plugin – ie use FTP or your cPanel’s file manager and go to the wp-content/plugins folder and remove the folder xili-language.

Not having access to your cutom theme, I can’t tell you what is happening.

Was this theme working previously? if so what changed to cause the original issue?

Have you looked at the theme options for a slider option?

Never mind, you don’t need a function.php.

1) Is that all that is in the css.style file in the child theme?
2) check the file for any non-printable characters – i.e. if you typed that in a word processor, it could give you issues.

And just to make sure, that file is called ‘style’css’ correct?

I tried taking out the “Nativity Nights” post, and it didn’t fix the problem.

of course not, the other posts are like that to. Try changing the posts per page (dashboard->settings->reading) to one

All of my images in the left hand column are 700px wide, and I have added them over time. Why would everything shift now?

Because something changed. Do you have automatic updates enabled? or have you updated the theme or and plugins or WordPress?

Didi you add anything new like a new plugin?

Oh yes, have you tried disabling ALL plugins (at the same time) to see if the issue goes away?

If you are doing this from with in WP you need to use the WP API and WP will hndle the calls. Here is an example I used (in a plugin I was using to track milage I walked on a virtual Applicaian Trail hike) to insert a row in a table I created in the WP database

//Submits data to the MYSQL database table wp_at_hike

	if (isset($_POST['Submit'])) {
		global $wpdb, $current_user;
		get_currentuserinfo();
		$trail_name = $current_user->display_name;

		$year = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['yeardata']);
	    $month = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['monthdata']);
	    $day = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['daydata']);
	    $time = 0;
	    $distance = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['distancedata']);
	    $sql = "INSERT INTO wp_at_hike (trail_name,year,month,day,time,distance) VALUES ('$trail_name','$year','$month','$day','$time','$distance')"; 

		if ($wpdb->query($sql) === FALSE) {
			echo "Error!";
		} else {
			echo "Your entry was successfully added to your Trail Log.";
		}
	};