I stopped keeping up with the news in early December. My friends tell me there’s a recession or something. All the financial gurus dole out dire forecasts for the years to come, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah. I may have yaddahed the worst part, but I have a forecast of my own: I predict summer will arrive shortly, just as it has done every year since the last ice age.

The best things in the fairer months come cheaply – hotdogs, kites, fireflies, flip-flops. Sadly, pedicures require a little more cash, and they go hand in hand with the flip-flops. You just can’t go walking out with gnarly feet. (Well, you could, but truly, would you want to?).

Wait, what is that on the drugstore shelf? It’s a pumice stone, it’s a foot scrub . . . It’s Ms. Pedicure’s Foot SpAHH! ($12.99 at Target) We’re saved! I know what you’re thinking. “Katharine, you watch too many superhero movies. Read some Thomas Hardy for cryin’ out loud.” I may be bankrupt in the literary department at the moment, but I can still recognize a good pedicure set when I see one. This kit even goes above and beyond the usual call of grooming with a few extras.

First came the pumice stone. It works just like you’d expect a pumice stone to work. I went to town on my callouses after soaking my feet. I followed that with the Smooth Steppin’ Foot Scrub, made of tiny pumice granules and rosemary to exfoliate the whole foot. After drying, I slathered on the Moisture-Rich Foot Lotion. No surprises here. These products do what they should, and they do it very well indeed. But there’s more! I pumped on the Invigorating Leg Rub, once again utilizing rosemary, and used the Massager to stimulate circulation in my legs and ankles.

Not only had my feet improved, but so had my mood. (Even I can’t totally evade the stress looming over us like a greenhouse gas.) Bottom line: Nothing as paltry as an economic downturn can stop my summer. When another ice age hits us, then we’ll reevaluate the necessity of pretty feet. Even then, if Ms. Pedicure is still around, I think we’ll all have lovely tootsies inside our snowboots.

To purchase the Ms. Pedicure Foot Spah, visit www.target.com or www.mspedicure.com