Jeff,
Thank you for your business first of all. Great question. The home page has two different sidebar areas you can use. The “Home Top” sits next to the slideshow and really meant to use one or two widgets. If you have more than that, it will push down the lower part of the home page. The other sidebar on the home page is the “Home Bottom.” If you’re widgets are too tall for the home top, you’ll want to move the overflow down to the home bottom section.
For a calendar, I use and recommend The Events Calendar by Modern Tribe. It’s well made, fits nicely with the theme and is free. They do have some paid extensions if you need more advanced functionality, but the free version is all that most sites need.
If you have any questions or trouble, just let me know.
Thanks again,
Bill