category omission from front page causes admin search "anomaly"

[SmockLady]

So here's what's going on and this is WELL beyond me and my minor bits of knowledge...
I am using the Beautiful Pro (customized) theme, which I don't think matters much here but it might.
Everything (mostly) is set the way I want it; I am trying to exclude a particular category from my home page. I have been able to do this successfully with a strange twist - it also excludes it from my admin posts list and I can't search for it either.

Here's the code I am using:

/**Customizing Home page feed **/
function exclude_category( $query ) {
    if ( $query->is_page() && $query->is_main_query() ) {
        $query->set( 'cat', '-223,-288, -22' );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'exclude_category' );

When I use it this way, the category posts show on my home page and are searchable in my admin posts.

When I comment out a portion of it and use it this way:

/**Customizing Home page feed **/
function exclude_category( $query ) {
    if ( /*$query->is_page() &&*/ $query->is_main_query() ) {
        $query->set( 'cat', '-223,-288, -22' );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'exclude_category' );

It removes the category posts from my home page as I desire, but they also get removed from my post list in the admin panel. What do I need to change?

http://thefloodedfishbowl.com

[Summer]

Wouldn't you want to use is_home and is_front_page instead?

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