Protecting your Posts from publiv view
You can always protect your posts by clicking the option “private”, so only logged-in fellow-editors may see it.
For even more privacy use “Visibility: Password Protected”. You can find both options in the right upper corner when drafting a blogpost.
Link to description of the options at WordPress.
Keeping the Blog well-arranged
You may shorten longer posts in the overview/homepage-view by using the “more”-divider in the tool-bar in the text-editor. Insert it somewhere in the post-text, then the full text will be accessible after clicking on the “more…”-link.
Staying up to date: RSS-Feeds
There are RSS-Feeds for posts or comments you can use to stay up to date.
With just seven participants, this may work without informational overload.
For a pull-approach (you have to collect it) you can use the RSS-links just like usual hyperlinks, they will generate a webpage that summarise the latest posts and comments.
For a push-approach (you will be notified) you can use a feedreader, for example Firefox’ RSS-functions.