Mukund, who often leaves comments, suggested I try the new Blogger feature to
create post summaries on the home page. Well, it was quick and easy! It's great for blogs that have long posts --- you can show magazine style summaries with just enough text to get readers to click the 'read more' link. Instead of 2 posts, I now have 6 highlighted on the home page.
This may be your dream solution since most Blogger template hacks are very complex and don't work for older posts! So try this. It will be a lot easier if you switch to the new Blogger editor. The editor has loads of new advancements on its own, including better image handling!