Privacy Trouble

So my wife wants our family picture blog to be private, so I’m using a “force user login” plugin and have distributed the username and password to friends and family. Unfortunately, it seems there is no good way for them to sign up to receive updates when we post new pics. When I do find something, I really need it to not need feedburner – I’d like them to just be able to enter their email address and start getting updates. Any help? I’ve spent hours trying to find something and just keep having trouble. I don’t need to keep the force user login, but somehow the whole site still needs to be protected and utilize an easy process for my not tech savvy relatives.