diff --git a/examples/lightpush_publisher_mix.nim b/examples/lightpush_publisher_mix.nim
index 607c78e12..a634c3248 100644
--- a/examples/lightpush_publisher_mix.nim
+++ b/examples/lightpush_publisher_mix.nim
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ proc setupAndPublish(rng: ref HmacDrbgContext) {.async.} =
   ).isOkOr:
     error "failed to mount waku mix protocol: ", error = $error
     return 
+  discard node.setMixBootStrapNodes()
 
   let destPeerId = PeerId.init("16Uiu2HAmPiEs2ozjjJF2iN2Pe2FYeMC9w4caRHKYdLdAfjgbWM6o").valueOr:
     error "Failed to initialize PeerId", err = error
@@ -97,8 +98,11 @@ proc setupAndPublish(rng: ref HmacDrbgContext) {.async.} =
   node.peerManager.start()
 
   notice "publisher service started"
-  while true:
-    let text = "hi there i'm a publisher using mix"
+  var numMsgs = 2
+  var i = 0
+  while i < numMsgs:
+    i = i + 1
+    let text = "hi there i'm a publisher using mix, this is msg number " & $i
     let message = WakuMessage(
       payload: toBytes(text), # content of the message
       contentTopic: LightpushContentTopic, # content topic to publish to
@@ -118,8 +122,8 @@ proc setupAndPublish(rng: ref HmacDrbgContext) {.async.} =
     else:
       error "failed to publish message", error = res.error
 
-    await sleepAsync(5000)
-    break
+    await sleepAsync(500)
+
 
 when isMainModule:
   let rng = crypto.newRng()
diff --git a/waku/node/waku_node.nim b/waku/node/waku_node.nim
index 3f0b4d8b9..06de59db9 100644
--- a/waku/node/waku_node.nim
+++ b/waku/node/waku_node.nim
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ proc mountSharding*(
   node.wakuSharding = Sharding(clusterId: clusterId, shardCountGenZero: shardCount)
   return ok()
 
-#[ proc getBootStrapMixNodes(node: WakuNode, exceptPeerID: PeerId): Table[PeerId, MixPubInfo] =
+proc getBootStrapMixNodes*(node: WakuNode): Table[PeerId, MixPubInfo] =
   var mixNodes = initTable[PeerId, MixPubInfo]()
   # MixNode Multiaddrs and PublicKeys:
   let bootNodesMultiaddrs = ["/ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/60001/p2p/16Uiu2HAmPiEs2ozjjJF2iN2Pe2FYeMC9w4caRHKYdLdAfjgbWM6o",
@@ -239,20 +239,20 @@ proc mountSharding*(
     if peerIdRes.isErr:
        error "Failed to get peer id from multiaddress: " , error = peerIdRes.error
     let peerId = peerIdRes.get()
-    if peerID == exceptPeerID:
-      continue
+    #if (not peerID == nil) and peerID == exceptPeerID:
+    #  continue
     let mixNodePubInfo = createMixPubInfo(mixNodeMultiaddr, intoCurve25519Key(ncrutils.fromHex(bootNodesMixPubKeys[index])))
 
     mixNodes[peerId] = mixNodePubInfo
   info "using mix bootstrap nodes ", bootNodes = mixNodes
   return mixNodes
- ]#
+
 
 #TODO: Ideally these procs should be moved out into mix specific file, but keeping it here for now.
 proc mixPoolFilter*(cluster: Option[uint16], peer: RemotePeerInfo): bool =
 
   if peer.enr.isNone():
-    debug "peer has no ENR", peer = $peer
+    trace "peer has no ENR", peer = $peer
     return false
 
   if cluster.isSome() and peer.enr.get().isClusterMismatched(cluster.get()):
@@ -297,7 +297,7 @@ proc populateMixNodePool*(node: WakuNode){.async} =
     let remotePeerENR = remotePeers[i].enr.get()
     # TODO: use the most exposed/external multiaddr of the peer, right now using the first
     let maddrWithPeerId = toString(addPeerId(remotePeers[i].addrs[0],remotePeers[i].peerId))
-    debug "remote peer ENR", peerId = remotePeers[i].peerId, enr = remotePeerENR, maddr = maddrWithPeerId
+    trace "remote peer ENR", peerId = remotePeers[i].peerId, enr = remotePeerENR, maddr = maddrWithPeerId
 
     let peerMixPubKey = mixKey(remotePeerENR).get()
     let mixNodePubInfo = createMixPubInfo(maddrWithPeerId.value, intoCurve25519Key(peerMixPubKey))
@@ -305,21 +305,26 @@ proc populateMixNodePool*(node: WakuNode){.async} =
 
   # set the mix node pool
   node.mix.setNodePool(mixNodes)
-  debug "mix node pool updated", poolSize = node.mix.getNodePoolSize()
+  trace "mix node pool updated", poolSize = node.mix.getNodePoolSize()
   return
 
 
 proc startMixNodePoolMgr*(node: WakuNode ){.async} =
   # try more aggressively to populate the pool at startup
   var attempts = 50
+  # TODO: make initial pool size configurable
   while node.mix.getNodePoolSize() < 100 and attempts > 0:
     attempts -= 1
     discard node.populateMixNodePool()
     await sleepAsync(1.seconds)
 
+  # TODO: make interval configurable
   heartbeat "Updating mix node pool", 10.minutes:
     discard node.populateMixNodePool()
 
+proc setMixBootStrapNodes*(node: WakuNode,){.async}=
+  node.mix.setNodePool(node.getBootStrapMixNodes())
+
  # Mix Protocol
 proc mountMix*(node: WakuNode, mixPrivKey: string): Future[Result[void, string]] {.async.}  =
   info "mounting mix protocol", nodeId = node.info #TODO log the config used