Another thing I am curious about is time of day too -- I was told vitamin D/Multivitamins were better taken in the morning with food.

It really depends. Other things like iron is best taken fasted (and paired with Vitamin C). Coffee also blocks iron absorption, so many people supplement at nighttime. Also things like Zinc and Copper both compete with each other for absorption, so best to avoid taking them at the same time.

If you're optimizing your supplement stack, really gotta research each one individually (and how each impact the absorption of the others)